Giant Anemone

• It hosts clownfish that shelter among its tentacles: the fish acquires a coating on its mucus that stops the anemone recognising it as prey, and in return it defends the anemone from the butterflyfish that nibble at it.
• Its sting is among the most powerful of any anemone and can inflict painful burns on a diver.
• It contracts until it disappears into the sand when it feels threatened, leaving only a hole in the bottom.
• It is one of the ten anemone species that host clownfish, and among the most sought after by them: it takes in at least seven different species.
• The clownfish is not without value to it: the fish clean its tentacles, supply nutrients in their droppings and drive off butterflyfish, which eat anemones.
• Its tentacles are short and densely packed, which gives it the look of a carpet, and they are stickier than those of other host anemones.
• It is the hardest of all the host anemones to keep in an aquarium, and its collection for the aquarium trade is a serious local threat.
• Like corals, it hosts symbiotic zooxanthellae that supply much of its energy by photosynthesis.

Habitat and environment

Lagoons and shallow reefs of the Indo-Pacific, over sand and rubble bottoms

Sources consulted: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stichodactyla_gigantea