The Club Tipped Anemone belongs to the order of the sea anemones and is therefore part of the class of the Anthozoa.
Description
The Club Tipped Anemone is circular and can reach up to 30cm in diameter, while its tentacles can reach up to 15cm in length. In total, they can have up to 90 tentacles, which resemble the shape of a baseball bat.
Usually, Telmatactis cricoides are two-coloured, with many variations. Some are white violet, pink, red, green, orange or reddish brown.
Habitat and Distribution
Telmatactis cricoides lives in crevices, caves or under stones. So they basically prefer a dark location. The Club Tipped Anemone can be found down to depths of 40m.
When diving in the Canary Islands you can observe them at almost every dive.In addition, they are found in the Gulf of Mexico, Costa Rica, the Caribbean, in the eastern Mediterranean until Malta, the Azores, Madeira and the coasts of Spain and Portugal.
Biology
Although they can be admired in very dark places in the day completely open, Club Tipped Anemone are usually drawn together during the day and you hardly see anything of them. They are active in the night and are very quickly retracted when the light is strong. They live solitaire and stay in place when they have found a suitable place. Telmatactis cricoides feeds on zooplankton and light. If the conditions are not optimal, they can slowly move on their feet.
Club Tipped Anemone and Crustaceans
In a study in Madeira and the Canary Islands, where more than 200 Club Tipped Anemone were examined, 86% of them had a total of over 19 different species of crustaceans as symbionts. Each anemone that was larger than 12cm had at least on Crustacea and on 45% of all anemones lived up to 4 different species. The Sexy Shrimp lived on 65% of all the Club Tipped Anemones. (Source)