Sea Anemones

Anemones are carnivorous, feeding on tiny plankton or fish.

Their stinging tentacles are triggered by the slightest touch, firing a harpoon-like filament called a nematocyst into their prey.

Once injected with the paralyzing neurotoxin, the prey is guided into the mouth by the tentacles.

An anemone has a single opening in the center of an oral disc, by which it consumes food and excretes waste.

Sea anemones often live in close association with other organisms. The hermit carries a single anemone on the snail shell it uses as a “house.” When the hermit crab grows too large for its shell, it moves to a new one, transplanting the anemone to the new shell.