Cnidarians
Giant carpet anemone
Heteractis magnifica
Epipelagic zone
Host to many clownfish that are immune to its own sting, it can live for decades in the same spot without ever moving.
🗺️ Geographic range
Coral reefs of the Indo-Pacific, from the Red Sea to Polynesia.
📊 Population
No global population estimate available; declining locally where collection for the aquarium trade is intensive.
⚠️ Threats
Collection for the aquarium trade
Locally documented decline in areas where collection for the aquarium trade is intensive.
Source: French National Museum of Natural History
Habitat
- Indian Ocean · Coral reef · Epipelagic zone · Permanent
- Red Sea · Coral reef · Epipelagic zone · Permanent
🥚 Reproduction
Can reproduce by fission or sexually, depending on conditions.
Behaviour
- Diet
- Small fish and invertebrates, paralysed by its stinging tentacles.
- Hunting
- Motionless, passive capture on contact with its tentacles.
- Communication
- None; its symbiotic relationship with the clownfish is based on chemical contact.
- Social life
- Fixed in one spot, often hosting a resident pair of clownfish.
Physiology
- Anatomy
- A soft body fixed to the substrate, a crown of stinging tentacles.
- Respiration
- Direct gas exchange across the body.
- Vision
- No eyes.
- Adaptations
- Stinging cells that don't affect the clownfish, protected by a specific mucus.
🔗 Web of marine life
Partners
⚡ Its extraordinary abilities
- Can live for decades in the same spot without ever moving
- Maintains a symbiosis with the clownfish, which in turn protects it from certain predators
If you cross paths with this animal…
Risk: Low: a mild to moderate sting for humans, rarely dangerous.
Behaviour: Motionless, dangerous only on direct contact with the tentacles.
Advice: Never collect an anemone — its loss deprives the clownfish of its only shelter.
💡 Did you know?
- Some individuals are thought to live for several decades in the same spot.
- Without a host anemone, a clownfish has very little chance of surviving predators.
