By Nicole Webster
Anemones are fantastic garbage disposals. If you drop something on one, it will be quickly swallowed and lost. Bad news if it’s something you want to keep. Good news if you have something to get rid of (and a pet anemone).
Despite being green, and having zooxanthellae symbiobionts to photosynthesize for them, Anthopleura xanthogrammica supplement this died with tidal casualties. Or maybe its the reverse.
As the tide rushes in, it dislodges inadequately prepared animals, which fall down into the waiting pit of Sarlacc (remastered tentacles and all). Once down the gullet, they are calmly digested, and the hard parts are ejected later out the mouth.
I have myself saved snails in the process of being swallowed at low tide.
Out on Helby this week, I found a surprising number of crab guts strewn on top of anemones. They appear to be Petrolisthes a porcelain crab. Poor things.
Crab bits in the mid intertidal Giant Green Sea anamene
Someone fed well!
Recovered parts for a clearer ID of all those Petrolisthes, on a background of Pisaster
I caught one spewing while I watched… yum
The Madreporite 