I hope you know that Starfish really aren't fish. Starfish really are Echinoderms (say, "ee-KINE-oh-derms"), which means animals that have spiny skin. Nowadays, the common name for these animals is Sea Stars, which helps avoid any confusion. Starfish really aren't fish, after all.

The most beautiful of all Sea Stars are the Feather Stars, also called Crinoids. This picture shows close-up of a Golden Crinoid. The Golden Crinoid has 20 arms, and you can see three of its arms in this close-up.

Golden Crinoids usually live in a hole or some other shelter on the reef. The Crinoid will stay in its hole with only its arms sticking out into the ocean currents. Its arms are covered with tiny branches that are covered with even smaller tentacles. The tentacles look like hairs. Look closely and you can see these tentacles silhouetted against the pink sponge in the background near the left side of this picture. The Crinoid sticks its arms out into the ocean current to catch food with these tentacles.

The arms of this Golden Crinoid were each about 7 inches long. A Crinoid with all of its arms stretched up into the current is about the size of a basketball.

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