Snakelocks Anemone

Photo: Petr Kocarek · CC BY-NC

The tunnel entrance walls and bay reef at Porto Palermo are carpeted with snakelocks anemones, their long tentacles glowing green from symbiotic zooxanthellae in the well-lit shallows and transitioning to greyish brown in the tunnel's shadow zone where photosynthesis is less productive. They provide shelter for commensal shrimps and the anemone goby, which lives in close association with the tentacles and feeds on the anemone's mucus and captured prey. Unlike many anemone species, snakelocks cannot fully retract their tentacles, leaving them permanently vulnerable to physical disturbance.