This crab is found on several different anemones, including Cryptodendrum adhaesivum and Stichodactyla haddoni. Nearly every specimen of the latter seems to host a pair. They often hide under the anemone, but can often be seen out among the tentacles, feeding with their handnets (see this species on Cryptodendrum adhaesivum). They never leave the anemone. On Stichodactyla haddoni (all the anemones on this page) they often appear to be resting on a field of balloons.
Here is a pair along with another anemone commensal, the shrimp Ancylomenes sp. 1.
This one is scooping plankton out of passing water currents.
Some Stichodactyla haddoni anemones are mostly red.
The crab below was in a bleached-out anemone that had lost its symbiotic zooxanthellae (see the bleached-out Radianthus magnifica).
Created 1 September 2010
Updated 11 December 2024