Regular seastar

Regular seastar
Image: Derwent Estuary Program
Community type

Intertidal reef organisms

Habitat type

Rocky reefs, kelp beds and inter-tidal zone

Accidentally introduced from New Zealand, the regular seastar is small, with arms no longer than 4.5 cm. They can be a variety of colours, from blue, to green, orange, red or brown. They live on both hard and soft surfaces, from the inter-tidal zone down to 100 m. Regular seastars are a scavenger eating dead animals (such as crabs, fish, sponges and molluscs) as well as algae. When food items are too large to fit in their mouth the regular sea star can push part of its stomach outside its body to digest food. As an introduced species in Tasmania, it competes with native seastars for food and habitat.

Much of the text within the species area of our website was written by Veronica Thorpe, as part of the Derwent River Wildlife Guide (2000).

The DEP has developed a variety of classroom and outdoor activities focused around the key estuary habitats of tidal wetlands, salt marshes and rocky reefs. These include classroom materials, online resources, interpretive walks, games and sensory experiences.