A slender star to about 15 cm (6 in) with narrow cylindrical arms, mottled pink and cream and speckled darker. Arms are frequently of wildly unequal length, and the reason is the most interesting thing about the species: it reproduces by dropping one off on purpose.
A detached arm crawls away on its own tube feet, survives for months, and grows a small disc with four stubby new arms at its base - a shape divers call a comet, and one of the more startling things to find under a torch on a rubble slope. The parent regrows what it shed. Whole populations can be dominated by these clones, since a star that never has to meet a mate can spread through a reef on its own. It lives on rubble and coral rock from the shallows to about 30 m (100 ft), mostly out at night, grazing the surface film. Finding one comet is easy once you know the shape; after that they turn up on every second night dive.
- slender cylindrical arms, often of unequal length
- mottled pink and cream with darker speckles
- single long arm growing a small disc and stubby new arms
- diameter up to 15 cm
