Beautiful anemones I saw in the Mediterranean Sea last week

[extreme_tooth_decay]

I was checking out some tide pools in the Mediterranean Sea when I was on vacation last week, and was amazed how beautiful these anemones were.

 

These are the best shots I could get, it wasn't easy with all the surf action.

 

As you can see from the pics, some of them were high and dry, one was eating a fish (looked like a fisherman dropped a bunch of bait fish there and the anem grabbed one), some were literally living in a pile of garbage.

 

Very beautiful anemones...I considered borrowing one. Since they could obviously live in garbage, and out of water for hours...I figured they would survive the trip home. But I did not.

 

These guys were all about fist sized.

 

[Dell2go]

I would borrow one or two.

[L8 2 RISE]

i forget the name now, but they are a temperate to cold water species, ask dshnarw, I think theu might be borneman's?

[ReeferMan]

http://faunanet.gov.au/wos/factfile.cfm?Fact_ID=26

 

Wartah Anenomes

[jason the filter freak]

holy crap that thing has a big appetite

[extreme_tooth_decay]

http://faunanet.gov.au/wos/factfile.cfm?Fact_ID=26

 

Wartah Anenomes

 

 

That link says they are found throughout southern australia, quite a long way away...doesn't say anything about the Mediterranean...wouldn't the mediterranean be cooler water?

 

Also the article says they are up to 4cm...these are a lot bigger than that...5"+ = 12-15cm I think?

Edited October 26, 2009 by extreme_tooth_decay

[dshnarw]

Beadlet anemones - Actinia equina

 

Common from the Northeast Atlantic to South Africa. Sometimes they show up on Diver's Den for about $40 each (along with several other African anemone species that are mislabeled as such). The true beadlets are very hardy in both tropical and temperate systems.

[Reefoholic]

Where in the Mediterranean did you see them? Spain or closer to inland sees like Greece or Turkey?

[extreme_tooth_decay]

Where in the Mediterranean did you see them? Spain or closer to inland sees like Greece or Turkey?

 

It was off the western coast of Greece