They are a nocturnal hunter, so they spend the day retracted and bundled.
Usually, they are hidden somewhere amidst rocks and coral.
But in this case, because it chose to retract between the branches of Sea Rod, we get a rare and good look at their daytime state.
They are in the same family as the much more familiar Sea Stars and the Brittle Star.... so they have 5 arms.
But in the case of the Basket Star, each of those arms can have many more branches growing from it.
They can grow to weigh as much as 11 lbs with the ability to stretch out to more than 2ft in length.
They position themselves directly in the flow of a strong current of water and unfurl their branching arms to filter, snag and pluck their next meal from the water's flow.
The Basket Star captures it's prey with a rapid flexing movement of the arm.... first encircling it and then securing it with the tiny sharp hooks that line each arm.
From there, the meal is moved inward toward the Basket Star's mouth, which is located on the lower surface of the center disk, that is it's main body.
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