Why ‘crown-of-thorns’? The crown-of-thorns starfish is nearly the largest species of starfish (Asteroidea). It may be 50 cm or more in diameter and can have more than 15 arms. Its ‘crown-of-thorns’ are the long sharp spines that cover its upper surface. What is more, the spines are coated with a saponin toxin, which causes irritation to puncture wounds (a considerable problem when working with the starfish). Coral reefs, where the crown-of-thorns starfish live, have many large predatory fish, so they need to protect themselves. Ironically, it is now the reefs that need protection from the starfish.
How so? Crown-of-thorns starfish feed on the living surface tissue of hard corals (Scleratinia). Using hundreds of small, sucking tube feet in each arm, the starfish slowly moves onto the surface of the corals. It pushes its stomach out through its mouth on the underside, spreading the stomach across the surface of the coral beneath it to about its own diameter. It digests the coral tissue with enzymes secreted from the stomach and harvests the digested tissue as it retracts the stomach. The result of this procedure is a substantial area of white coral skeleton cleared of tissue — a ‘feeding scar’ (Figure 1A). The bare skeleton is quickly invaded by algae so that the colour of coral is replaced by a dull algal turf (Figure 1B,C), resulting in a much less attractive reef. Such reefs are still very productive and the complex reef community shifts to more herbivory. The invasion, however, by turf algae and other organisms such as soft corals (Octocorallia) may hamper coral larvae settlement and recovery of hard corals on the reef surface.