If we were swimming along a reef and saw this crazy creature we’d lose our cool at the sight of this incredible mimic anemone. Looking every bit like its stony coral model, this Phyllodiscus semoni is nearly indistinguishable from the coral colonies it is aping. In this case the mimic anemone could be trying to resemble a birdnest coral, a stylophora or even a nice small colony of Acropora spathulata.
Interestingly enough, the part of the Phyllodiscus anemone that we are seeing are not the tentacles, but the pseudotentacles which hide the main body of the anemone which comes out only at night, hence its alternate name of ‘Night Anemone’. As beautiful as this mimic anemone is, perhaps the reason we never see this species in aquaria is that it packs a sting like the HellFire anemone, Actinodendron plumosum, but the sting is not only painful, but also necrotic meaning that it starts digesting tissue on contact! The video is from the California Academy of Sciences.
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