Tiny
colourful brittle stars
Ophiothela danae*
Family Ophiotrichidae
updated
Apr 2020
Where
seen? These
tiny brittle stars are sometimes seen on sea
fans, flowery
soft corals and other cnidarians and even on Thorny sea urchins. A single host
can be home to many of these tiny brittle stars. But it requires a
keen eye to spot them.
Features: Whole
animal about 1cm wide. 5-6 arms with very small spines, held flat, along the sides of the arm. Arms with colourful bands usually to match
the host animal. Central disk also with colourful markings. Sometimes confused with the Tiny orange brittle star which are found on Asparagus
soft corals. |
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Changi, Jul 12
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Sometimes confused with the Tiny orange brittle star which
are uniformly orange. The two kinds of tiny brittle stars are sometimes seen together. |
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Chek Jawa, Oct 16
In Spiky flowery soft coral |
Cyrene Reef, Aug 20
In Leathery sea fan |
*Species are
difficult to positively identify without close examination.
On this website, they are grouped by external features for convenience of
display
Tiny
colourful brittle stars on Singapore shores |
Other sightings on Singapore shores |
On Knobbly sea star
Changi Carpark 7, May 21
Photo shared by Loh Kok Sheng on facebook. |
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Pulau Ubin, Jul 17
Photo shared by Loh Kok Sheng on facebook. |
Pulau Ubin, Dec 12
Photo shared by Loh Kok Sheng on flickr. |
On flowery soft coral.
Chek Jawa, Jul 16
Photo shared by Loh Kok Sheng on his blog. |
Links
References
- Lane, David
J.W. and Didier Vandenspiegel. 2003. A
Guide to Sea Stars and Other Echinoderms of Singapore.
Singapore Science Centre. 187pp.
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