Marine biology -- Great Britain; Seashore; Seashore biology
The habits of sea anemones are particularly interesting, and it will
well repay anyone to make a study of these animals in their natural
haunts as well as in the aquarium. The gentle swinging of the tentacles
when searching for food, the capture and disposal of the prey, the
peculiar modes of locomotion, and the development of the young, are
among the chief points of interest. As regards locomotion, the usual
method of moving from place to place is by an exceedingly slow gliding
of the base or ‘foot’; and while some anemones are almost constantly on
the move, others hardly ever stir from the secluded niche in which they
have taken up their abode.
Sometimes an anemone will detach itself from the rock, and drag itself
along, but very slowly, by means of its tentacles, sometimes inverting
its body and walking on its head, as it were, and though one may never
have the opportunity of witnessing this manœuvre on the shore, we have
found it far from an uncommon occurrence in the aquarium.
The natural food of anemones consists of small crustaceans, such as
shrimps, and crabs, molluscs, small fishes, and in fact almost every
kind of animal diet, and there need never be any difficulty in finding
suitable viands for species kept in captivity. It is really astonishing
to see what large morsels they can dispose of with the assistance of
their extensile mouths and stomachs. It is not even necessary, indeed,
that the morsel be so small as to be entirely enclosed by the walls of
its digestive cavity, for the anemone will digest one portion while the
other remains projecting beyond its mouth. Further, it will even attack
bodies which it cannot swallow at all, by protruding its stomach so as
to partially envelope them, and then digesting the portion enclosed.
Indigestible portions of its food, such as the shells of small molluscs,
are ejected through the mouth after the process of digestion has been
completed.
We have already referred to the reproduction of sea anemones by means of
eggs, but it is interesting to note that they may also increase by a
division of the body into two or more parts, and that this division may
be either natural or artificial.
If an anemone be cut into halves longitudinally, each half will develop
into a complete animal. If cut transversely, the upper portion will
almost always develop a new suctorial disc, and produce a new individual
complete in every respect; and it has been stated that the basal portion
of the divided animal will also, occasionally, produce a new disc and
tentacles.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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