Bahama Sea Star, Cushion Sea Star, or West Indian Sea Star (Oreaster reticulatus)

This beautiful invertebrate is the largest Sea Star that we have here in Florida, reaching around 20 inches in diameter. The juveniles are a greenish-brown color that helps them blend into the seagrass beds where they reside. Adults on the other hand, are shades of red, orange, yellow, or brown and frequent sandy or rubble bottom marine environments.

They have a thick body with short blunt spines along the upper surface.  Usually extending from the body are five arms, but they can sometimes have four, six or even seven in rare cases. Their diet is a broad range of algae, invertebrates and general sediment, but they prefer edible sponges where they will often eliminate them from the areas where the Sea Stars are common.

The way that they eat is particularly interesting in that they don’t ingest their food. Instead, they crawl over the food, open it’s mouth, turn it’s cardiac stomach inside out, while engulfing and digesting it’s meal. Because these Sea Stars were very popular in the souvenir and aquarium trades, they are now protected here in Florida.

We currently have four of these beautiful animals that were imported from the Bahama’s where they are more common. You can gently interact with these amazing animals at the ELC’s touch tank daily from 10:00-12:00 or 1:00-3:00.