It can grow up to 1 meter high: the giant plumose anemone (Metridium farcimen). The specimens I saw were not higher than 25 cm. It’s one of my favourite sea anemones because of its fluffy appearance, created by its hundreds of tentacles.
Compare the tentacles of the giant plumose anemone with the green surf anemone (see one of the previous messages).
The thinner the tentacles the smaller its prey. So the plumose anemone needs a lot of tentacles to catch plankton. The green surf anemone lives of individual organic and much bigger prey, like fish, crabs etc.
The short plumose anemone, Metridium dianthus (NL: zeeanjelier), another Metridium-species you can find at the west coast of Canada. This is a Dutch specimen. The two species look very much alike. The big difference is its size. The short plumose grows up to 20 cm, the giant to 1 meter. Find a real big one and you're sure of the species!
Since 1974 I own a cold water sea aquarium. It hosts mostly sea anemones (27 species) and a few starfish, crabs and fish. I have collected the animals myself from all over the world (Europe, New Zealand and South Africa).
Since two years it’s more difficult to take them home because of the regulations at airports: you are only allowed to take home flasks containing no more than 10 cc of liquid. But I still managed to take a few sea anemones and starfish home.
Before we got to the security check I dumped the seawater in a toilet. To my surprise they didn't ask me to open the bucket, after it went through the rontgen scanner. At a store we bought a few bottles mineral water. In the plane I mixed the mineral water with the aquarium salt I brought from home (divided in portions of 1 liter in serviettes), till it was salt enough (I had to taste it...). The animals responded well and the only thing I had to do to keep them well, was to shake the bucket a bit now and then.
The man sitting next to my wife was looking at us as if we where doing something very illegal. But I understand: who is mixing white stuff in serviettes with mineral water in a plane?
The beautiful plumose on this picture is now my guest.
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