Corkscrew Anemone with Peterson Cleaner Shrimps

MAKE FRIENDS WITH ANEMONE

Going snorkelling? Planning a scuba day on the reef? You’ll see wonderful fish and amazing coral for sure. But sometimes the beauty of other life on the reef can be overlooked. Check out the anemone in the header image, with the camouflaged cleaner shrimps playing around it. You wouldn’t want to miss a sight like that. The many and varied forms and colours of anemone on the reefs of the Bahamas make up a vital component of a spectacular underwater world and its astonishing variety.

Anemones are living animals of the invertebrate type. Basically living corals without skeletons. All have stinging cells of several varieties to sting or entangle their prey such as small fish, or other invertebrate species.

Most anemones host varieties of cleaner shrimps. They also provide a base for the snapping shrimps that can stun their own prey. Some of these can (painfully) penetrate human skin.

Some crabs pull particular species of anemone off the reef and attach them to their carapace. This is thought to have a double purpose of providing both camouflage and protection.

All great archive photos: Melinda Riger of Grand Bahama Scuba, with thanks; also Rick Guest for info