Cnidarians
Giant carpet anemone
Heteractis magnifica
Low danger🌊 0–20 m📏 up to 100 cmIUCN status: Not evaluated
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
Behaviour
- Diet
- Small fish and invertebrates, paralysed by its stinging tentacles.
- Hunting
- Motionless, passive capture on contact with its tentacles.
- Reproduction
- Can reproduce by fission or sexually, depending on conditions.
Physiology
- Anatomy
- A soft body fixed to the substrate, a crown of stinging tentacles.
- 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.