A large feather star with an arm span to about 30 cm (12 in), most often black with yellow or white arm tips, though pale and banded animals turn up too. Unlike the species that hide by day, this one commonly sits fully exposed on top of a coral head or at a reef edge, arms held in a wide fan across the flow.
That exposure is affordable because a feather star is barely worth eating - the tissue carries defensive compounds, and a torn arm regrows. The fan is a filtering net: plankton caught on mucus travels down grooves lined with beating cilia to a mouth on the upper surface. Feather stars also carry passengers. Shrimp, small crabs, clingfish and brittle stars live among the arms color-matched to their host, and the squat lobster in our catalogue that lives on feather stars is one of them - so a close look at any large individual is worth the time it takes.
- arms often black with contrasting yellow or white tips
- large, arm span to about 30 cm
- sits fully exposed on top of coral in current
- arms held in a wide fan facing the flow
