Oreaster reticulatus Starfish Red Cushion Star Fish Sea Star Echinoderma Asterozoa Asteroidea Oreasteridae

Oreaster reticulatus Large Giant Starfish Red Cushion Star Fish Sea Star cm 30-32 Echinoderma Asterozoa Asteroidea Oreasteridae, natural light brown colour.
Some spines may appear broken.
Family: Oreasteridae.
Common name: The Red Cushion Sea Star or the West Indian Starfish.
Syn. Asterias gigas, Asterias pentacyphus, Asterias reticulata, Asterias sebae, Oreaster aculeatus, Oreaster bermudensis, Oreaster gigas, Oreaster lapidarius, Oreaster tuberosus, Pentaceros aculeatus, Pentaceros gibbus, Pentaceros grandis, Pentaceros reticulatus.

Oreaster reticulatus (Linnaeus, 1758) is a species of echinoderm of the Oreasteridae family. It is found in shallow waters in the western Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea.
This is the largest starfish found in this habitat: it can grow to about 50 centimeters in diameter. It usually has five thick, broad arms projecting from a large central disc, but some specimens have four, six, or seven. The upper surface is hard and covered with blunt spines. The color of the adults varies from red, orange, yellow or brown. Juveniles are mottled greenish-brown. The sexes are separate. In subtropical areas it breeds in the summer, but in more tropical locations it breeds all year round.
They are omnivorous and feed on epiphytic algae, sponges and small invertebrates that they find in the seabed sediment. As food they prefer sponges which tend to be eliminated from areas where starfish abound. To feed itself, it collects a part of sediments, then everts the cardiac stomach and incorporates the sediments of which it digests the organic part thanks to the gastric juices.
For further information see the related species Protoreaster nodosus.