---
title: Wrapper Anemone (Nemanthus nitidus)
scientific_name: Nemanthus nitidus
common_name: Wrapper Anemone
taxon: Sea anemones
published: 2026-08-09T06:00:11.411Z
updated: 2026-08-09T06:51:56.721Z
tags: Wrapper Anemone, Nemanthus nitidus, Sea anemones, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/stinging/sea-anemones/wrapper-anemone
---

# Wrapper Anemone (*Nemanthus nitidus*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Sea anemones (*Actiniaria*)
- **Size:** up to 5 cm across
- **Depth:** 10-50 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Cathemeral
- **Rarity:** Uncommon
- **Habitat:** Wrapped around gorgonian and black coral branches
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Gonochoric
- **Hazard:** Venomous

## How to recognise it

- column wrapped right around a coral branch, not sitting on rock
- translucent orange to pink, tentacles short and stubby
- several animals spaced along the same branch
- diameter up to 5 cm

An anemone that does not sit on a surface but wraps its column completely around a branch, gripping a gorgonian or black coral stem the way a hand grips a rail. Translucent orange to pink, with short stubby tentacles, about 5 cm (2 in) across when open, and usually several animals spaced along the same branch.

That position puts it into the current without any need to grow a stalk of its own, and the host is used purely as scaffolding - the anemone takes plankton for itself and gives nothing back, though it does no visible harm either. Depth is the reason it is unfamiliar: gorgonians and black corals are commonest below 10 m (33 ft) on shaded walls, and a torch run along a branch is how these turn up. Closed animals look like swellings on the stem and are easy to take for part of the coral.

## Also known as

- **English:** Zebra Gorgonian Wrapper, jewel anemone
- **German:** Schmuckanemone
- **Portuguese:** Anêmona-de-gorgônia-zebra
- **Japanese:** ウスアカイソギンチャク
- **Chinese:** 光輝線海葵
- **Russian:** Актиния-обёртка
- **KO:** 담홍말미잘

## Scientific synonyms

- *Namanthus nitidus*
- *Sagartia nitida* Wassilieff, 1908

## Range

Japan, South Pacific Ocean

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*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/stinging/sea-anemones/wrapper-anemone)*
*Updated: August 9, 2026*