---
title: Bubble-tip Anemone (Entacmaea quadricolor)
scientific_name: Entacmaea quadricolor
common_name: Bubble-tip Anemone
taxon: Sea anemones
published: 2026-08-08T15:47:14.076Z
updated: 2026-08-08T17:47:33.736Z
tags: Bubble-tip Anemone, Entacmaea quadricolor, Sea anemones, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/stinging/sea-anemones/bubble-tip-anemone
---

# Bubble-tip Anemone (*Entacmaea quadricolor*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Sea anemones (*Actiniaria*)
- **Size:** up to 30 cm across
- **Depth:** 1-40 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Cathemeral
- **Rarity:** Common
- **Habitat:** Crevices and coral heads on reef slopes
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Fission, Gonochoric
- **Hazard:** Venomous

## How to recognise it

- tentacle tips swollen into bubbles below the point
- green, brown or red-tipped tentacles, rarely all one colour
- base wedged deep in a crevice, only tentacles showing
- usually with clownfish in residence

The anemone most divers here meet first, and almost always by its tenants rather than by itself: this is the host of the two-banded clownfish on these reefs. Tentacles are tipped with a swelling just below the point, giving the bubbles behind the name - though a hungry or stressed animal drops them and reverts to plain taper, which confuses people expecting a permanent feature. Colour runs green through brown to red, and the disc reaches about 30 cm (12 in).

The base is jammed into a crevice or under coral, so what shows is the crown alone; a large individual may sit deep enough that only the tentacle tips are visible. It catches plankton and small fish with stinging cells, and takes energy from symbiotic algae in its own tissues as well. Colonies build by splitting: an animal divides down the middle and both halves regrow, which is why a single crevice can hold a dozen clones with their own clownfish groups. The sting is harmless to a diver but not to bare fingers held against it, and the resident fish will make their objection clear long before that becomes an issue.

## Also known as

- **English:** bubble-tip anemone, Rose Bubble Tip Anemone, bubble tip sea anemone
- **French:** Anémone à bouts renflés
- **Italian:** anemone a bulbi
- **German:** Kupferanemone, Rote Riesenaktinie, Blasenanemone
- **Portuguese:** anêmona-bolha
- **Czech:** sasanka čtyřbarevná
- **Japanese:** ウスカワイソギンチャク, サンゴイソギンチャク, タマイタダキイソギンチャク
- **Chinese:** 四色蓬錐海葵, 奶嘴海葵
- **Russian:** Пузырчатая актиния
- **AF:** Borrelanemoon
- **FI:** Kuplavuokko
- **HU:** hólyagos anemóna
- **KO:** 큰산호말미잘

## Scientific synonyms

- *Actinia (Entacmaea) adhaerens* Hemprich & Ehrenberg in Ehrenberg, 1834
- *Actinia (Entacmaea) helianthus* Hemprich & Ehrenberg in Ehrenberg, 1834
- *Actinia (Entacmaea) quadricolor* Leuckart in Rüppell & Leuckart, 1828
- *Actinia (Isacmaea) erythrosoma* Hemprich & Ehrenberg in Ehrenberg, 1834
- *Actinia (Taractostephanus) quadricolor* Leuckart in Rüppel & Leuckart, 1828
- *Actinia (Tristephanus) ehrenbergii* Brandt, 1835
- *Actinia ehrenbergii* Brandt, 1835
- *Actinia erythrosoma*
- *Actinia quadricolor* Leuckart in Rüppel & Leuckart, 1828
- *Actinia quatricolor*
- *Actinia vas*
- *Actinia vasa* Quoy & Gaimard: de Blainville, 1830
- *Actinia vasum*
- *Anemonia adhaerens* Ehrenberg
- *Anemonia adherens*
- *Anemonia erythrosoma* Ehrenberg
- *Anemonia kwoiam* Haddon & Shackleton, 1893
- *Anemonia ramsayi* (Haddon & Shackleton, 1893)
- *Antheopsis carlgreni* Lager, 1911
- *Aulactinia gelam* (Haddon & Shackleton)
- *Cereactis quadricolor* Leuckart
- *Condylactis erythrosoma* (Hemprich & Ehrenberg in Ehrenberg, 1834)
- *Condylactis ramsayi* Haddon & Shackleton, 1893
- *Corynactis quadricolor* Leuckart
- *Corynactis vas* Quoy & Gaimard

## Range

Andaman Sea, Australia, Egypt, Fiji, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, North Pacific Ocean, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, South Pacific Ocean, Vietnam

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/stinging/sea-anemones/bubble-tip-anemone)*
*Updated: August 8, 2026*