StarFish ID Please

SimonHP · Aug 1, 2019

Greetings from a wintery Cape Town!
Can anyone help me ID this starfish please. It came to me on an order from Kenya and was wrongly ID'ed as Valvaster striatus.
Thank you, Simon.

GoVols · Aug 5, 2019

Bump!

jaxredsoxfan · Aug 5, 2019

Not seen one like that before but its beautiful!

GoVols · Aug 5, 2019

jaxredsoxfan said:
Not seen one like that before but its beautiful!

That it is...;Drool , but I don't think it's reef safe, from going by it's shape...

SimonHP · Aug 6, 2019

GoVols said:
That it is...;Drool , but I don't think it's reef safe, from going by it's shape...

Thank you GoVols. What about its shape worries you? I would be interested to hear what characteristics are generally indicative of unwanted behaviour and learn more about StarFish in general.

Indeed, it is beautiful, it has distinctive feathery protuberances from each of its arms and the photo does not do the deep crimson red colour proper justice.

At the moment it is cruising around the floor of a frag tank apparently eating algae with no concern for the corals. I have not yet tried any meaty food yet.

resortez · Aug 6, 2019

Identifying sea stars is always a tough one. Since it came from the African coast, I’m going to shoot for P. horridus. Good looking sea star, btw.

vetteguy53081 · Aug 6, 2019

Looks like member of penteceraster starfish group

SimonHP · Aug 6, 2019

resortez said:
Identifying sea stars is always a tough one. Since it came from the African coast, I’m going to shoot for P. horridus. Good looking sea star, btw.

Thank you very much Resortez. I found a blog that I scan read and took the following screenshot from.