''Fromia monilis'', common name necklace starfish or tiled starfish, is a species of starfish belonging to the family

Goniasteridae Goniasteridae (the biscuit stars) constitute the largest family of sea stars, included in the order Valvatida. They are mostly deep-dwelling species, but the family also include several colorful shallow tropical species. Description Goniast ...

Description

''Fromia monilis'' can reach a diameter of about . Tips of the arms and the disc center of this starfish are bright red, while the remaining parts are paler, forming large plates. Fromia monilis (Seastar).jpg Image:Fromia monilis (Sea star).jpg, In

Timor Timor is an island at the southern end of Maritime Southeast Asia, in the north of the Timor Sea. The island is East Timor–Indonesia border, divided between the sovereign states of East Timor on the eastern part and Indonesia on the western p ...

. Image:Elegant Necklace Starfish (Fromia monilis) (8488880713).jpg, ''Fromia monilis'' (Sabah, Malaisia) The appearance of this sea star can be highly variable (colors, plates, presence of plates on the central disc, armpits...), and its identification using picture can be difficult, as many other species (like ''

Fromia nodosa ''Fromia nodosa'', commonly called elegant sea star, is a species of marine starfish belonging to the family Goniasteridae. Description The elegant sea star has five triangular arms radiating around an apparent central disc. its coloration is ...

'') can have a very similar aspect.

Distribution

This species can be found in the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...

and Western Pacific, from the

Andaman islands The Andaman Islands () are an archipelago in the northeastern Indian Ocean about southwest off the coasts of Myanmar's Ayeyarwady Region. Together with the Nicobar Islands to their south, the Andamans serve as a maritime boundary between th ...

up to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

and

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

Ecology

It feeds on encrusting

sponge Sponges, the members of the phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), are a basal animal clade as a sister of the diploblasts. They are multicellular organisms that have bodies full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate through t ...

s, detritus or small invertebrates.

Nutrition and management of the aquarium

The species is also considered in reef aquariums. It feeds on the surface of the stones in a thin layers of algae, so it can live only in an old well-ripened aquarium. If the algae are not growing fast enough, supplemental feeding is usually unsuccessful, and this starfish dies of starvation.

References

* * *

Notes

External links

*
FROMIA MONILIS - (PERRIER, 1869) - New Caledonia
* {{Taxonbar, from=Q1954511 monilis Starfish described in 1869