Red starfish
Echinaster sepositus
Special features
You may not expect it since they look so peaceful, but their body is covered in tiny spines.
Appearance
The classic mermaid-bra: brick red and five-armed.
The red starfish actually looks exactly as you would imagine the typical starfish, just that sometimes it can have six or seven arms instead of five.
Its body surface is covered with gill sores (papules) and glands with recessed spines (1.5 mm), which gives it a rough and bumpy appearance.
Most often, they grow to 20cm, in exceptional cases even up to 30cm.
Natural enemies
The pink lady(Charonia iampas)
Dangerous/venomous
The red starfish is neither dangerous nor venomous.
Sketch
1. Five arms with tiny spines
2. Mouth opening
Pro tips
To satisfy its hunger, it grazes the substrate with its suction feet and gets detritus, algae, and tiny animals between its wings.
It then transports its food to its mouth, which is located in the middle of the underside of its body, via a ciliary groove.
It prefers to hang around on hard bottoms, but can also be found in the sand, where its bright color provides beautiful color accents.
Unfortunately, these beautiful animals are dried and sold to tourists.
Text: Carolina Leiter, Felician Hosp, Pia Balaka
Pic: Felician Hosp
Illustration: Dive Dict
