Folded into a fist on a gorgonian by day and opened at night into a branched net up to a metre across. It closes if a torch is held on it, so light it from the side.
Nearly a metre across with the arms fully extended. Five arms branching repeatedly into a fine brown or black mesh.
The region’s other basket star is rarer and deeper.
To about thirty metres on reef, boulder tops and seagrass. This is the classic night dive animal. By day it is furled into a tight ball wedged into a gorgonian and easy to walk past; after dark it climbs to a raised perch and spreads the arms into the current, and the overlapping arm bases generate turbulence that helps trap plankton. A small shrimp lives on it.
Approach it slowly with the light off the animal — a torch beam will start it furling.
Ratings are per location: 1 means found on most dives that look for it, 5 means a handful of records. Where enough dives have been logged the figure is calculated from them; otherwise it is an editorial estimate, and says so. We publish habitat and destination, not the dive site.
