---
title: Gilbert's Burrowing Anemone (Edwardsianthus gilbertensis)
scientific_name: Edwardsianthus gilbertensis
common_name: Gilbert's Burrowing Anemone
taxon: Sea anemones
published: 2026-08-08T15:47:14.127Z
updated: 2026-08-08T18:03:59.943Z
tags: Gilbert's Burrowing Anemone, Edwardsianthus gilbertensis, Sea anemones, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/stinging/sea-anemones/gilberts-burrowing-anemone
---

# Gilbert's Burrowing Anemone (*Edwardsianthus gilbertensis*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Sea anemones (*Actiniaria*)
- **Size:** up to 10 cm tall
- **Depth:** 1-25 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Nocturnal
- **Rarity:** Uncommon
- **Habitat:** Buried in sand, only the crown exposed
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Gonochoric
- **Hazard:** Venomous

## How to recognise it

- crown of tentacles emerging straight from bare sand, no visible body
- tentacles translucent with fine banding
- withdraws completely into the sand when approached
- crown up to 6 cm across

An anemone that shows nothing but a crown of translucent, faintly banded tentacles emerging from bare sand - the column is a long buried tube, and there is no visible body at all. Approach too fast and the whole animal withdraws below the surface in an instant, leaving no trace of where it was.

That vanishing act is the practical problem with photographing burrowing anemones, and the reason most divers never register them: a crown on open sand reads as debris until it disappears. It feeds at night on small animals drifting near the bottom, stinging and folding them inward. Unlike the reef anemones it carries few or no symbiotic algae, since a buried animal in dim sand gets little use from them, so everything it needs comes from what it catches. Look on sheltered sand flats after dark, and drift rather than swim.

## Also known as

- **Russian:** Актиния Гилберта

## Scientific synonyms

- *Edwardsia gilbertensis* Carlgren, 1931

## Range

Japan

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