We call these the sticky sucker anemones. The very short tentacles are rather sticky, and if disturbed, the anemone will rapidly suck down into a hole in the reef. These anemones are highly variable in color and large ones are about 30cm across. In some parts of the Pacific, the clownfish (anemonefish) Amphiprion clarkii will live with these anemones. However, that species of Amphiprion is not known from the Marshalls, and we have seen no other fish living symbiotically with Cryptodendrum adhaesivum. These anemones have been subject to coral bleaching from warmer water associated with climate change, and since the first bleaching episode at Kwajalein in 2009, a number of individuals we had observed over the years have vanished.
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This species is susceptible to bleaching when the water temperature gets too high. Less than 1°C over the normal high temperature is enough to start the bleaching process, and if that temperature is sustained for several weeks, the anemones turn almost completely white. See the discussion under Heteractis magnifica for more information on the bleaching process. Several of the anemones in our normal dive sites did not make it through the four bleaching episodes in between 2009 and 2016.
Patchy bleaching with a few patches of the normal, unbleached brown coloration.
Sometimes the bleaching process reveals the true colors of the anemone, in this case light orange and yellow on the oral disk.
The bleaching seems related to direct sunlight in addition to warm water, so sometimes the only unbleached portion of the anemone was the relatively shaded area in the center around the mouth.
Created 26 July 2018
Updated 2 July 2020