---
title: Leathery Sea Anemone (Radianthus crispa)
scientific_name: Radianthus crispa
common_name: Leathery Sea Anemone
taxon: Sea anemones
published: 2026-08-08T15:47:14.095Z
updated: 2026-08-08T18:33:50.003Z
tags: Leathery Sea Anemone, Radianthus crispa, Sea anemones, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/stinging/sea-anemones/leathery-sea-anemone
---

# Leathery Sea Anemone (*Radianthus crispa*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Sea anemones (*Actiniaria*)
- **Size:** up to 50 cm across
- **Depth:** 1-30 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Common
- **Habitat:** Sand and rubble between coral heads
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Gonochoric
- **Hazard:** Venomous

## How to recognise it

- long tapering tentacles, often purple or pink at the tips
- tough leathery column, usually buried in sand
- tentacles frequently curl and twist rather than lying straight
- disc up to 50 cm across

A large anemone with long, tapering tentacles that curl and twist rather than lying straight, often flushed purple or pink towards the tips. The column is tough and leathery - the character behind the name - and is normally buried in sand or rubble with only the crown showing, disc up to about 50 cm (20 in).

Unlike the magnificent anemone, which perches on top of coral, this one takes the spaces between coral heads and can withdraw entirely below the surface when disturbed. It hosts clownfish too, and is the anemone most often occupied by juveniles - a young clownfish frequently starts life here before moving to a different species as an adult. Feeding combines stinging capture of drifting animals with sugars from symbiotic algae in the tentacles. It has moved genus alongside the magnificent anemone and is now Radianthus crispa, though the older Heteractis name is what most guides still print.

## Also known as

- **English:** leathery sea anemone, leather anemone, leathery anemone
- **German:** Indopazifische Lederanemone
- **Japanese:** シライトイソギンチャク
- **Russian:** Кожистая актиния

## Scientific synonyms

- *Actinia (Entacmaea) crispa* Hemprich & Ehrenberg in Ehrenberg, 1834
- *Actinia crispa* Ehrbg.
- *Actinia paumotensis* Couthouy in Dana, 1846
- *Antheopsis crispa* (Ehrenberg, 1834)
- *Antheopsis kuekenthali* Kwietniewski
- *Antheopsis macrodactylus* Haddon & Shackleton
- *Bunodes crispa* (Hemprich & Ehrenberg in Ehrenberg, 1834)
- *Bunodes crispus* (Hemprich & Ehrenberg in Ehrenberg, 1834)
- *Cereus crispus*
- *Cereus paumotensis*
- *Discosoma macrodactylum* Haddon & Shackleton, 1893
- *Discosoma tuberculata* Kwietniewski, 1898
- *Discosomoides tuberculata*
- *Entacmaea crispa* Hemprich & Ehrenberg
- *Heliactis paumotensis* Dana
- *Heteractis crispa* (Hemprich & Ehrenberg in Ehrenberg, 1834)
- *Heteractis macrodactylum* (Haddon & Shackleton, 1893)
- *Radianthus crispus* (Ehrenberg, 1834)
- *Radianthus kuekenthali* Kwietniewski, 1896
- *Radianthus kükenthali* Kwietniewski, 1896
- *Radianthus lobatus* Kwietniewski, 1898
- *Radianthus macrodactylus* (Haddon & Shackleton, 1893)
- *Stoichactis tuberculata* Kwiet.

## Range

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

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