Free living anemone?

Hi,

Saw this rolling along the sand approx 5cm across and you can see a small crab is host. Looks like some sort of free licing anemone to me. Any ideas?

Yes - at least temporarily free living. Anemones can move, and in fact one frequent complaint of people with salt-water tanks is that the anemones won't stay in one place. They'll migrate to whatever spot in the tank has the best conditions for them. Some frequently swim as part of their normal behavior (check out the Australian Swimming Anemone & the Alaska Swimming Anemones) while others do it to escape predation or move to a new spot.

http://australianmus...wimming-Anemone

http://www.sfos.uaf....s/story/?ni=208

Okay. Whilst I knew they could move, I thought that they where predominantly sessile or free living.

What got me about this guy is the conical tentacles which I can t recall seeing elsewhere.

Here's an image of Phlyctenactus tuberculosa showing fat tentacles like in your image.

Swimming Anemone. by JimSwims, on Flickr

That however is not the normal appearance for them. For more shots of same species follow link below.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimswims/tags/phlyctenactustuberculosa/

Cheers,

Jim.