Quote:
Originally Posted by Dan
Puzzling.
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Agreed. And I certainly don't have any answers, I am just talking out loud.
One thing that I have wondered about is the presence of reproductive "matter" in the water. It has been noted that when stressed, these anemones will sometimes spawn. Because both S. gigantea and S. haddoni are synchronous spawners, there is a possibility that one stressed anemone continues to release sperm or eggs or other signaling chemicals into the water as it inflates and deflates, possibly causing other anemones stress or triggering inflation/deflation among the other anemones present.
Maybe spawning behavior by one species triggers defensive chemicals from another? (Now I am just hypothesizing widely)