These images are screenshots from video sent me for identification by Nikki Cunanan
from Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research (CIMAR). The video was taken during NOAA Okeanos Expedition off of the Aleutian Islands, Gulf of Alaska and Aleutian Trench in 2023.
The anemone on screenshots is certainly Ophiodiscus moskalevi described in my paper published in 2021 (see link below). Original description of Ophiodiscus moskalevi is based on single trawled and damaged specimen from abyssal depths in West Pacific. It was not accompanied by photograph of live specimen. Nevertheless, I have no doubt that the anemone on the screenshots presented here belongs to our species Ophiodiscus moskalevi: it has very typical disc-shaped body with short pointed tentacles arranged in a single row on the periphery of the disc. Ophiodiscus moskalevi has exactly 48 tentacles.
Another North Pacific species of Ophiodiscus, O. bukini has more numerous tentacles.
Previously Ophiodiscus was assigned to the family Actinostolidae, but now we place it in Sicyonidae, a family established by Hertwig in 1882.
