An unmistakably fat sea star to about 27 cm (11 in) across, pale pink through cream, with five short swollen arms rounded at the tips and a surface of fine granules that feels like wet suede. Bigger animals look inflated rather than star-shaped, and a brownish patch usually marks the underside around the mouth.
It lives on reef slopes and the rubble beside coral from about 1 m to 40 m (3 to 130 ft), moving slowly over hard bottom and feeding by everting its stomach onto the surface film of algae, detritus and dead tissue - digestion happens outside the body, and what returns through the mouth is already liquid. That habit makes it a cleaner of sorts, working over surfaces that other grazers ignore. It is one of the easiest large stars to find on these reefs, often out in daylight in plain view, and its bulk and color separate it at a glance from every other species here. Handling costs it: the granular skin bruises, and a star out of water loses the internal pressure it moves by.
- thick swollen arms, five of them, blunt at the tips
- pale pink to cream body, granular surface
- brown patch around the central mouth area
- diameter up to 27 cm
