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Basketstar - Astrophyton muricatum
This was a juvenile Basketstar, still very small in size seen during a night dive in Bahamas.
They are only seen at night or towards late afternoon when they come out to feed. During daytime, they are probably hiding under rocks or crevices.
This Basketstar are sort of weird or unique, looking like roots of trees.
The giant basket star, ''Astrophyton muricatum'', is an echinoderm found in shallow parts of the tropical western Atlantic and throughout the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. It is the only species in the genus ''Astrophyton''. During the day, it curls up into a tight ball shape to protect itself from predators. At night, it climbs to an elevated point to feed by extending its intricately branched feeding arms in a bowl-like shape in order to snare passing plankton and other organisms from.. more
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There were actually quite a lot of them, all of them small in size and clinging to the soft corals and there were some in black colour variation, which was much more difficult to take proper picture of as it was during a night dive. Posted 8 years ago