Mobility

Mature E. quadricolor live predominantly secured into cracks and crevices of the reef scape. However, this species is very capable of movement after inflating their pedal disk and detaching quickly from the sediments. Whilst on Heron Island anemones were observed crawling slowly across the substrate in specimen containers, possibly using pedal musculature and alternate inflation and retraction of their pedal disk. However, another behaviour was observed when anemones were disturbed sufficiently, which may enable the anemones to move wider distances quickly to avoid disturbances. The anemone appeared to flip so as to sit pedal disk up and inflate it's pedal disk maximally. Once in this position the anemone was easily picked up and moved by swirling the water. It ishypothesized that this unexpected behaviour involving maximizing the pedal surface maximized the chances of the anemone to be picked and transported passively by water currents. Unfortunately, this hypothesis was not tested.

Despite the anemones' ability to move across substrates, their ability to escape smothering by rapid sedimentation was questioned. To investigate this, E. quadricolor specimens (n=5) were placed in beakers and allowed to secure to the bottom before being completely covered in fine sand sediments sifted from beach sand. Anemones were observed making quick escapes from the sediment by inflating both the pedal disk and column alternatively to push up through the sand. Once sitting above the sediments anemones would flip pedal disk up to resume the posture discussed above assumed to maximize passive transport by water currents. This process was repeated a number of times for each anemone and the same series of behaviours were observed. The behaviour was captured in the two timelapse videos below showing the anemone initially uncovered and secured and then emerging from the sediments.