Crown-of-thorns Starfish

Acanthaster planci · Echinoderm

Crown-of-thorns Starfish
Crown-of-thorns starfish on a reef in the Philippines · Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

One of the largest starfish in the world, 25 to 35 cm across with up to 21 arms covered in sharp spines 4 to 5 cm long, found on the coral reefs of the Indo-Pacific from the Red Sea and East Africa to the Pacific coast of Central America. It climbs onto living coral, pushes its stomach out over it and digests the polyps, leaving white scars; in outbreaks it can strip the living coral from large stretches of reef. Its spines leave saponins in the wound: a sharp pain that lasts hours, bleeding, nausea and swelling for a week or more, and brittle spine tips that may have to be cut out.

Danger
Dangerous if cornered
How it is met
Alone, by night
Size
Small
In winter
Active in winter

Where it lives

Coral Reef

Sources

Open it in Biomes — MGS Toolbox