Leathery sea anemone

Scientific name : Heteractis crispa

Large anemone (50 cm diameter), with many long (10 cm), thin, synuate, conical tentacles, completely hiding the oral disc. Pale gree colour, tentacles tipped in purple or violet. Grey, leathery column with prominent adhaesive verrucae.
For the divers familiar with the Mediterranean Sea, it resembles Anemonia sulcata.
On the reef, confusion is possible with Heteractis magnifica, the latter having blunt tentacles, brightly coloured and prominent column, usually not settling on branching corals. On sandy bottoms, confusion is possible with Heteractis malu, Heteractis aurora e Macrodactyla doreensis. H. crispa has more tentacles of all the above species.

Associated organisms
With zooxanthellae; with many species of anemone fish (in our area Amphiprion clarkii, Amphiprion melanopus, Amphiprion perideraion, Amphiprion sandaracinos, Amphiprion polymnus); with Dascyllus trimaculatus.