Ophiolepis superba

Identification: pentagonal disc up to 3 cm across; five round, tapering arms up to 9 cm long with short spines. Beige, yellowish or light brown; the disc bears a dark brown or black five-pointed star with a pale centre, and the arms are banded dark brown and pale. Rather stiff, it can barely lift its arms above the plane of the body. It is the type species of the genus Ophiolepis.

In the wild it lives on sand and coral rubble on shallow reefs, shallower than 30 m. Wikipedia (de) places it in the western Indian Ocean and the Red Sea, from Somalia to Mozambique, the Seychelles, the Mascarenes and Madagascar; SeaLifeBase extends its range to New Caledonia and the Philippines. Solitary and light-shy, it hides by day under stones and corals and comes out at night to search for small invertebrates, detritus and carrion.

Reproduction and status: no species-specific breeding data in the sources consulted; in the aquarium it is considered extremely difficult to breed, as males and females look alike. It has not been evaluated by the IUCN and is not listed by CITES.