Stichodactyla gigantea, (Forsskål, 1775)
Stichodactyla gigantea, commonly known as the giant carpet anemone, is a species of sea anemone that lives in the Hawaii, USA, North America, and Indo-Pacific area. It can be kept in an aquarium but is a very challenging species to keep alive and healthy for more than 3–5 years.
Stichodactyla gigantea has a diameter that is usually no larger than 50 centimetres (1.6 ft) and a maximum of 80 centimetres (2.6 ft). It can appear in a number of colors, commonly brown or greenish and rarely a striking purple or pink, deep blue, or bright green. A healthy S. gigantea will possess tentacles that are extremely sticky to the touch, with firm adherence to surfaces.
S. gigantea resides on shallow seagrass beds or sand flats around 8 centimetres (3.1 in) deep (at low tide). Most anemones are treated as sessile, but the ones inhabited by anemonefish are in fact motile. Zooxanthellae are obligate symbionts within the anemone.
S. gigantea hosts 7 different species of anemonefish
Amphiprion akindynos (Barrier reef anemonefish)
Juvenile Dascyllus trimaculatus also associate with S. gigantea.
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