20 — White-striped anemone, Anthothoe albocincta

Anthothoe albocincta, south Piha, 11/9/16.

The white-striped anemone — Anthothoe albocincta (Hutton, 1879) is a small anemone (~2.5 cm across). Found throughout New Zealand and southern Australia, on exposed coastlines at or below low tide. It’s an anemone that’s more common sub-tidally and it can be found down to depths of ~20 m. Around the low-tide mark they like to live under overhanging ledges, out of direct sunlight and they are often found with the striped anemone.

Recent work in New Zealand has investigated the use of this anemone to control the settlement of fouling bryzoans on mussel lines. White-striped anemones were very successful in not only eating lots of the bryzoan larvae, but they also out-competed them for space on the lines. These results suggest a novel role in aquaculture for this and possibly other anemone species.

Not much appears to be known regarding what eats white-striped anemones, but red moki and leatherjackets have been recorded as feeding on them. However, these incidences of predation were not common, so they don't appear to be a major prey item for either fish.

More info:

Sea anemone guide:
https://shapeandtheidea.wordpress.com/2015/10/22/white-striped-anemone/