{"id":6546,"date":"2017-12-24T11:38:04","date_gmt":"2017-12-24T19:38:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/larryeifert.com\/?page_id=6546"},"modified":"2023-09-25T09:42:59","modified_gmt":"2023-09-25T16:42:59","slug":"2015-01-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/published-writings-and-art\/salish-sea-stories-48-north-magazine\/2015-01-2\/","title":{"rendered":"2015 \u2013 2 Fish-eating Anemone"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/published-writings-and-art\/salish-sea-stories-48-north-magazine\/2015-01-2\/2015-2-fish-anemones-3\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"983\" height=\"864\" src=\"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/2015-2-Fish-Anemones.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-11915\" srcset=\"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/2015-2-Fish-Anemones.jpg 983w, https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/2015-2-Fish-Anemones-300x264.jpg 300w, https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/2015-2-Fish-Anemones-768x675.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 983px) 100vw, 983px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Like a scene straight out of \u2018Little Shop of Horrors,\u2019 the brilliant red and yellow flower unfolds, over 100 petals waving in the current, a strawberry red delight for a passing perch to nibble on. A young perch moves closer, then closer still, and suddenly receives a stunning jolt that renders it useless. Through the haze, the fish vaguely sees those beautiful petals reach out and pull it towards the flower\u2019s center, where once a flat pad was, now a mouth opens. A delight it\u2019s not, but a splendid sea-predator whose tentacles first sting small fish, shrimp and even crabs, and then entirely consumes them in one slow-motion swallow. Fish go in tail first, and they can turn a crab around so claws are facing away before proceeding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It gets better. The fish-eating anemone can switch between being male and female \u2013 and may live to be 100-plus years of age. Sure they look like beautiful flowers, are related to coral and jellyfishes, but at 10 inches across, these hunters are some of the Salish Sea\u2019s largest anemones. But everyone has a softer side, and the fish-eating anemone may also play host to small fish, allowing six-inch painted greenlings a safe harbor. Leaving the protection of the anemone by day, at night the greenling sleeps without harm right over the anemone\u2019s mouth on the central oral disc. The fish are safe here because anemones use their tentacles for defense against predators like sea stars or snails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Larry Eifert paints and writes about wild places. His work is in many national parks across America \u2013 and at larryeifert.com.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-medium-font-size is-nowrap is-layout-flex wp-container-core-group-is-layout-ad2f72ca wp-block-group-is-layout-flex\">\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Like a scene straight out of \u2018Little Shop of Horrors,\u2019 the brilliant red and yellow flower unfolds, over 100 petals waving in the current, a strawberry red delight for a passing perch to nibble on. A young perch moves closer, then closer still, and suddenly receives a stunning jolt that renders it useless. Through the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/published-writings-and-art\/salish-sea-stories-48-north-magazine\/2015-01-2\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">2015 \u2013 2 Fish-eating Anemone<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11915,"parent":6453,"menu_order":88,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-6546","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6546"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6546\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11916,"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6546\/revisions\/11916"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6453"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}