It was found in a sample collected from the surface of a tropical aquarium brain coral.

It actively feeds on Procryptobia sorokini, probably immobilising its prey through discharging a previously unknown type of extrusome named an ancoracyst.

It is notable for having a gene-rich mitochondrial genome, the largest known outside the jakobids or Diphylleia rotans.

[1] A 2018 study from Cavalier-Smith, Chao & Lewis created a new subphylum and subsequent lower taxonomic ranks for Ancoracysta twista.

They also created a new combination for Colponema marisrubri (Mylnikov & Tikhonenkov, 2009), which was shown to be ultrastructurally similar and phylogenetically close to A. twista, thus renaming it A.