---
title: Striated Sea Star (Valvaster striatus)
scientific_name: Valvaster striatus
common_name: Striated Sea Star
taxon: Starfish
published: 2026-08-06T16:37:23.125Z
updated: 2026-08-20T17:11:25.984Z
tags: Striated Sea Star, Valvaster striatus, Starfish, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/echinoderms/starfish/striated-sea-star
---

# Striated Sea Star (*Valvaster striatus*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Starfish (*Asteroidea*)
- **Size:** up to 10 cm
- **Depth:** 3-30 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Nocturnal
- **Rarity:** Rare
- **Habitat:** Deep inside crevices and under coral
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Gonochoric

## How to recognise it

- small star with short broad arms
- upper plates arranged in striking radiating lines
- orange to reddish brown
- diameter up to 10 cm

A small, secretive star to about 10 cm (4 in) with short broad arms and an upper surface whose plates line up in clear radiating rows - the striations behind the name. Color is orange through reddish brown, and the animal is stiffer and flatter than its size suggests.

It lives deep inside crevices and under coral from about 3 m to 30 m (10 to 100 ft), and that habit is why almost nobody sees it: this is a star that spends its life in the spaces divers cannot look into, emerging only at night and rarely far from cover. It carries pedicellariae - tiny pincer-like structures scattered over the body that snap shut on anything small that touches them, keeping the surface clear of settling larvae and parasites. Most stars have them, but in this genus they are unusually well developed. Records from this coast are few enough that a photograph with a date and depth attached has real value.

## Also known as

- **English:** Striated star
- **Japanese:** ヒメノコギリヒトデ
- **Russian:** Полосатая звезда

## Scientific synonyms

- *Asteracanthion striatus* (Lamarck, 1816)
- *Asterias striata* Lamarck, 1816
- *Valvaster spinifera* H.L. Clark, 1921

## Range

Indian Ocean, New Caledonian Exclusive Economic Zone, North Pacific Ocean, Republic of Mauritius

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/echinoderms/starfish/striated-sea-star)*
*Updated: August 20, 2026*