Stichodactyla mertensii is a large anemone that tends to lie low over the bottom on a hard substrate. It is usually occupied by Amphiprion chrysopterus, although some host a pair of Amphiprion tricinctus instead. When living in this anemone, the A. tricinctus are mostly black in color.
Below a large Stichodactyla mertensii anemone is tucked between colonies of table Acropora and branching Stylophora coral on a coral-rich lagoon pinnacle.
This anemone is sharing some space with a Tridacna squamosa.
Although we see adults of two different Amphiprion species occupying a single anemone only rarely, on 27 September 2010 we ran across the Stichodactyla mertensii below that had one adult and one tiny juvenile each of A. tricinctus and A. chrysopterus. The black A. tricinctus was tending a mass of dark eggs glued to the rock just in front of its face in both photos. No other adult A. tricinctus was seen anywhere on that lagoon pinnacle that day. Makes you wonder if these two might have tried an interspecies pairing.
We returned again to the mixed pair above on 11 July 2011 and they were still there, with the Amphiprion tricinctus again tending a clutch of eggs, the orange crust on the rock along the lower right edge of the anemone. This time, however, a small A. tricinctus (far left) was also in the anemone. As of September 2013, the anemone is still there with the same mixed pair.
Created 1 September 2010
Updated 20 September 2013