Long spined arms wound through a sponge or a gorgonian, usually with a dark line down each arm. Visible by day, unlike most brittle stars.
Five to eight centimetres across. Long glassy transparent spines standing out at right angles from slender arms, each arm with a dark stripe along the top, and a body usually lavender to reddish.
The other common Caribbean brittle star is mottled with shorter spines and has no clean stripe along the arm.
Six to sixty metres, draped across tube, vase and barrel sponges and on gorgonians and black coral, holding the arms clear of the surface at night to filter feed.
Harmless, though the spines catch on gloves.
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.
