Stichodactyla mertensii

Mertens Anemone ( Stichodactyla mertensii ) with Amphiprion sandaracinos

Mertens Anemone ( Stichodactyla mertensii ) is a sea anemone from the tropical Indo-Pacific coral reefs. It is considered the largest of all sea anemones.

Dissemination

In the Indian Ocean, she lives in the coral reefs along the coasts of East Africa and Madagascar to southern Andaman Sea and the coast of Indonesia, but not in the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf. In the Pacific, they inhabited the coasts of Indonesia, the Philippines, Taiwan, as well as the waters around New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji Islands and the northern coast of Australia with the exception of the Gulf of Carpentaria.

Features

Mertens anemone is from white, green or yellow-brown color. Their folded, more oval than circular mouth plate reached a diameter of up to 1.5 meters. Tentacles occur in two forms, short, only one to two inches long, which have the same color as the oral disc and a few, five inches or longer and longer tentacles the ends of white, yellow or green. Around the mouth there is a tentacle- free zone with a diameter of two to five centimeters. The stinging force of the anemone is very weak.

Way of life

Mertens Anemone does not live like their relatives, Stichodactyla gigantea and Stichodactyla haddoni on sandy soils, but preferably columns in rocky and coral reefs as a location. With danger she slowly withdraws into the gap.

She lives with zooxanthellae in symbiosis, from which it receives a portion of the nutrients that it needs. Mertens Anemone the other hand is a Symbioseanemone and important symbiotic partners of anemone fish. A total of twelve species of anemone fish accept it as a partner. Among the symbiotic partners of Mertens Anemone occurs for unknown reasons, often to melanism.

In saltwater aquarium Mertens Anemone is delicate and difficult to sustain.