Fish-eating anemone
Urticina piscivora
- Not on exhibit
- Animal type
- Invertebrates
- Ecosystem
- Reefs & pilings
- Relatives
- Hydroids, corals and jellyfishes; Phylum: Cnidaria
- Diet
- Invertebrates and small fishes
- Range
- Alaska to southern California
- Size
- Up to 8 inches tall (20 cm), 10 inches (25 cm) across
Meet the fish-eating anemone
While more delicate species rake in bits of food, this anemone has sturdy tentacles that bring down big game like shrimps and small fishes. Like other anemones, they grow larger when food's plentiful and "grow" smaller when food is scarce.
Watch in real time
Shark Cam
Check out this live cam – Shark CamConservation
Rocky reefs are important homes for many kinds of fish and invertebrates. But "rockhopper" trawls used in commercial fishing can leave reefs a tumbled wasteland, not to recover for decades.
Cool facts
- Small fish called painted greenlings sometimes lie in fish-eating anemones, much like clownfish do in tropical anemones.
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