Crown-of-thorns Starfish

Behaviour

The adult crown-of-thorns is a coral-eating predator that mainly consumes reef-building scleractinian coral polyps, along with encrusting sessile invertebrates and dead animals. Using its many tube feet, set in distinct grooves on its underside, it climbs onto living coral and moulds itself closely to the surface, even the intricate shapes of branching corals. It then everts its stomach out through its mouth, spreading it over an area nearly as wide as the starfish itself; the stomach surface releases digestive enzymes so the starfish can absorb nutrients from the dissolved coral tissue.