--- title: Djibouti Sea Pen (Scytaliopsis djiboutiensis) scientific_name: Scytaliopsis djiboutiensis common_name: Djibouti Sea Pen taxon: Sea pen published: 2026-08-08T19:41:08.753Z updated: 2026-08-08T20:10:05.045Z tags: Djibouti Sea Pen, Scytaliopsis djiboutiensis, Sea pen, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/stinging/sea-pen/djibouti-sea-pen --- # Djibouti Sea Pen (*Scytaliopsis djiboutiensis*) ## Quick facts - **Group:** Sea pen (*Pennatulacea*) - **Size:** up to 40 cm tall - **Depth:** 5-50 m - **Diet:** Planktivore - **Activity:** Nocturnal - **Rarity:** Rare - **Habitat:** Soft sand and silt, anchored by a buried stalk - **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Budding, Gonochoric ## How to recognise it - slender feather-like colony standing upright from bare sand - polyps arranged along the sides of a central stalk - withdraws into the sediment when touched or lit - height up to 40 cm A slender feather standing upright from bare sand at night, its polyps arranged along both sides of a central stalk. The lower part of that stalk is buried and swollen into an anchor, and the whole colony can pull itself down into the sediment - a lit or touched animal deflates and disappears, leaving no sign of where it stood. A sea pen is not one animal but a colony with a division of labour: one founding polyp grows into the stalk, and everything else buds from it, some polyps feeding, others doing nothing but pumping water to keep the structure inflated. Many species glow when disturbed, a wave of green light running along the colony. Gravier described this one in 1906 from Djibouti, at the southern entrance to this sea, and records anywhere are very few - sea pens live on the sort of featureless night-time sand that divers cross rather than search. ## Also known as - **Russian:** Морское перо джибутийское ## Range Indian Ocean, South Africa --- *Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/stinging/sea-pen/djibouti-sea-pen)* *Updated: August 8, 2026*