Yellow cluster anemone

Scientific name : Parazoanthus axinellae

Colonial anthozoan, it may cover large portions of the substrata with hundreds polyps, connected each others by a thin layer of living tissue.
Each polyp is constituted by a cylindrical long body, about 2 centimetres tall, ending with 2 concentric rows of 24-36 tentacles; the mouth is in the middle.
The animal is totally yellow or orange.

It lives on shady rocky or coralligenous cliffs, from the surface to 200 meters of depth. It may be found also as epibiont on other organisms; for example, it lives on sponges of the genus Axinella, and this is the reason for its name.
It feeds on zooplanktonic organisms, captured by the tentacles, and because of this it prefers areas exposed to the current.