Snakelocks Anemone

Photo: Corrado Alessandrini · CC BY-NC

Vivid green snakelocks anemones carpet the walls and cave ceilings throughout the site, their non-retractile tentacles waving in the surge to capture zooplankton. They host symbiotic zooxanthellae algae in temperate Atlantic waters — an unusual adaptation — that supplement the nutrition they gain from predation. Small commensal shrimp of the genus Periclimenes live hidden among their tentacles, gaining protection at the cost of intercepting some prey items.