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Condylactis gigantea

Condylactis gigantea
An anemone is shown with an almost shoe-shaped terracotta coloured base. Some thirty light green tentacles reach out from an opening at the top of this base. The tentacles have thin zebra-like darker and lighter stripes across, and the tentacles taper slightly towards the tip and terminate in a round end where they reach a third or half of the diameter at the base.
Wild specimen
A human hand in front of an aquarium of cylindrical shape; many yellow tentacles strive from the bottom of the aquarium towards the light from a lamp above, in a disorderly pattern. The longest tentacles are over twice as long as the male adult hand.
Size comparison with human hand
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Cnidaria
Class: Anthozoa
Order: Actiniaria
Family: Actiniidae
Genus: Condylactis
Species: C. gigantea
Binomial name
Condylactis gigantea
Weinland, 1860

Condylactis gigantea is a tropical species of ball anemone that is found in shallow reefs and other shallow inshore areas in the Caribbean Sea – more specifically the West Indies – and the western Atlantic Ocean including southern Florida through the Florida Keys. It is also commonly known as: giant Caribbean sea anemone, giant golden anemone, condylactis anemone, Haitian anemone, pink-tipped anemone, purple-tipped anemone, and Florida condy. This species can easily be seen growing in lagoons or in inner reefs as either individuals or loose groups, but never as colonies. They are often used as a model organism along with others in their genus for facultative symbiosis with monocellular algae.

The giant Caribbean sea anemone is usually found in the crevices of rock walls, attached to a rock, shell, or almost any other hard object in shallow water that experiences full–strength seawater most of the time, which may explain why the species is so common in Bermuda. Giant Caribbean sea anemones are also very common around reefs in both “forereef” and lagoon areas. It can also be found at most inshore areas, on coral reefs, though this is less common. Sea anemones in general can be found anywhere from the intertidal zone all the way to a depth of 30,000 feet.

Condylactis gigantea plays an important role in their subtidal communities by providing shelter to a variety of commensals (several fish and cleaner shrimp species), and they serve as "base stations" for fish cleaning activity.

The giant Caribbean sea anemone's primary mating season is reported to be in late May; however, they may continue to reproduce at a low levels throughout the year. This anemone is generally dioecious but occasionally hermaphroditic. It has a 1:1 to sex ratio (males to females) with no evidence of brooding or of asexual reproduction or division furrowing.

The giant Caribbean sea anemone's reproduction scheme has been defined as oviparous → planktonic → lecithotrophic. The releasing or spawning of eggs and sperm are relatively synchronous with fertilization occurring externally in the water column. The success of fertilization depends upon the close proximity of separate sexed anemones. Fertilization produces a planula larva, which derives nutrients from yolk, thus larval death by starvation is unlikely, making dispersal an advantageous strategy to survival. The planula larva will settle on the benthos, develop a pedal disc, and then, eventually grow into a fully developed anemone.


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Wikipedia

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