---
title: Lilith's Tube Anemone (Arachnanthus lilith)
scientific_name: Arachnanthus lilith
common_name: Lilith's Tube Anemone
taxon: Tube-dwelling anemone
published: 2026-08-09T06:00:11.388Z
updated: 2026-08-09T06:02:34.824Z
tags: Lilith's Tube Anemone, Arachnanthus lilith, Tube-dwelling anemone, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/stinging/tube-dwelling-anemone/liliths-tube-anemone
---

# Lilith's Tube Anemone (*Arachnanthus lilith*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Tube-dwelling anemone (*Ceriantharia*)
- **Size:** up to 4 cm across
- **Depth:** 3-30 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Nocturnal
- **Rarity:** Uncommon
- **Habitat:** Soft sediment, in a buried felt tube
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Gonochoric
- **Hazard:** Venomous

## How to recognise it

- two rings of tentacles emerging from a tube in the sediment
- long outer tentacles, short inner ones around the mouth
- translucent, often banded, tentacles
- crown up to 4 cm across

A tube anemone whose crown rises from a soft tube buried in sediment, with two distinct rings of tentacles - long ones on the outside and a short inner circle around the mouth. The crown reaches about 4 cm (1.6 in) and the tentacles are translucent, often faintly banded.

Tube anemones are not true anemones at all, and the tube is the clearest sign: it is a felt of discharged stinging threads and mucus, built by the animal and extending well below the surface. The whole animal withdraws into it in an instant, which is what a diver usually sees. Feeding happens at night, on small animals caught by the outer tentacles and passed inward. The species was described only recently from this region, and the epithet takes the name of a figure from Mesopotamian and later Jewish folklore, in keeping with a group whose members are named for nocturnal things.

## Also known as

- **Russian:** Цериантус Лилит

## Range

Red Sea

---

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