43 — Coral anemones, Corallimorpharia

Corynactis australis, Rock pool on Lion Rock,
Piha, 11/15.

Corynactis australis, Rock pool on Lion Rock,
Piha, 11/15.

Corynactis australis, under a rock,
Mt. Maunganui, 2015.

Corynactis australis, from a deep rock pool on
Lion Rock, Piha, 11/15. These covered the walls
 of the pool.

Two deep-sea Corallimorphus niwa Fautin, 2011
 coral anemones from deep-water
on Challenger Plateau, west
of New Zealand, TAN0707, 2007.

Coral anemones are in the order Corallimorpharia, while sea anemones belong in the order Actinaria. The easiest way to tell them from true sea anemones is to look at their tentacles: if the tentacle has a knob on the end, it's a corallimorph not an anemone. Corallimorphs are essentially corals without a calcareous skeleton. However, they do leave a calcareous base under each anemone, which is left behind after the anemone dies.

There is one common species found in New Zealand: the jewel anemone (Corynactis australis, Haddon & Duerden, 1896), which is found at low tide and shallow waters on rocks. They appear to like shady habitats and can multiply by fission, so you can often get large mats of them. Jewel anemones are small (~10–15mm) across the disc, but can be a spectacular range of colours.

There are other species found in New Zealand waters, but these are from in deep-water and are not often seen.











































More info:

https://www.niwa.co.nz/blogs/critteroftheweek/192

https://shapeandtheidea.wordpress.com/2015/10/27/jewel-anemone/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corallimorpharia