Condylactis gigantea

Condylactis gigantea
An anemone is shown with an almost shoe-shaped terracotta coloured base. Some thirty light green tentacles reach out from an opening at the top of this base. The tentacles have thin zebra-like darker and lighter stripes across, and the tentacles taper slightly towards the tip and terminate in a round end where they reach a third or half of the diameter at the base.
Wild specimen
A human hand in front of an aquarium of cylindrical shape; many yellow tentacles strive from the bottom of the aquarium towards the light from a lamp above, in a disorderly pattern. The longest tentacles are over twice as long as the male adult hand.
Size comparison with human hand
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Cnidaria
Class: Hexacorallia
Order: Actiniaria
Family: Actiniidae
Genus: Condylactis
Species:
C. gigantea
Binomial name
Condylactis gigantea
Weinland, 1860

Condylactis gigantea is a tropical species of ball anemone that is found in shallow reefs and other shallow inshore areas in the Caribbean Sea – more specifically the West Indies – and the western Atlantic Ocean including southern Florida through the Florida Keys. It is also commonly known as: giant Caribbean sea anemone, giant golden anemone, condylactis anemone, Haitian anemone, pink-tipped anemone, purple-tipped anemone, and Florida condy. This species can easily be seen growing in lagoons or in inner reefs as either individuals or loose groups, but never as colonies. They are often used as a model organism along with others in their genus for facultative symbiosis with monocellular algae.