Spiny sea star

Scientific name : Gomophia egeria

Sea star with 5 conical arms, background colour with red-orange and grey bands. The surface is covered with regularly spaced, conical, spiny tubercles, each one with a white ring and another external black ring at the basis. 12 cm diameter. Encountered in the reef front, external reef, deep reef. It feeds on sponges and colonial ascidians.
Nardoa tuberculata and Nardoa frianti have rounded tubercles instead of conical spines. Often confused with Gomophia egyptiaca, whose spines have a white basal ring but no black ring.