''Protoreaster lincki'', the red knob sea star, red spine star, African sea star, or the African red knob sea star, is a species of
starfish from 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 t ...
.
Description
''P. lincki'' grows to a maximum diameter of . It has numerous tubercles located along its five arms. These tubercles are bright red and extend upward from the arms. It has a gray body with red stripes that connect the tubercles. This creates an appearance of a grid made of interconnecting wires.
The skeleton is composed of many calcareous ossicles and spicules. They are located inside the layer of connective tissue. This skeleton supports the large central disk.
File:Starfish in Mombassa.JPG, In Kenya
)
, national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"()
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Nairobi
, coordinates =
, largest_city = Nairobi
...
.
File:Asteroidea 01.jpg, Close to a dead '' Astropyga radiata''
File:Diani Beach 10.jpg, Drying
Distribution
It is distributed in the western
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 t ...
The red-knobbed starfish can only be found in the Indian Ocean, mostly along the African coast and Madagascar, north to India and Sri Lanka. A small population is also present in
Coral Bay, Western Australia
Coral Bay is a small coastal settlement located north of Perth, in the Shire of Carnarvon in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia.
Bordered by the Ningaloo Reef, it is a popular tourist destination and largely owes its survival to revenu ...
.
They prefer sandy or muddy seabeds because it is easier for them to search and forage for food. While they are most often seen in shallow tidal pools, they can live in a variety of depths, down to deep. Red-knobbed starfish are carnivorous animals that eat a number of sea creatures.
Behaviour and diet
''P. lincki'' is active in both daytime and nightime. It is a popular aquarium specimen, but is considered incompatible with many other invertebrates, as it will eat
soft coral
Alcyonacea, or soft corals, are an order of corals. In addition to the fleshy soft corals, the order Alcyonacea now contains all species previously known as "gorgonian corals", that produce a more or less hard skeleton, though quite different f ...
s,
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 throug ...
s,
tube worms,
clam
Clam is a common name for several kinds of bivalve molluscs. The word is often applied only to those that are edible and live as infauna, spending most of their lives halfway buried in the sand of the seafloor or riverbeds. Clams have two shel ...
s, other starfish, and the like.
[ ]
It is also a heavily fished species for the curios trade.
References
Bibliography
*
External links
Image
Oreasteridae
Animals described in 1834
{{Asteroidea-stub