Common Starfish

This delightful animal is also known as the Thorny Star and comes in many colors, usually cream to black with numerous small colored bumps in a contrasting bright orange or white. It is similar to the Chocolate Chip starfish. It is usually found crawling on the glass or live rock searching for food. In nature it lives on sandy substrate sea grass beds. It is not reef safe and may eat many types of sessile invertebrates such as corals, sponges and anemones. It can be fed pieces of chopped seafood on the sand with the starfish placed on top.

Echinoderms such as starfish are extremely sensitive to changes in the water quality. They require well established aquariums of at least 6 months for both water stability and sufficient food supply. It grows up to 12 inches and needs an aquarium at least 100 gallons.