Bocas Species Database

Habitat: Pier pilings, oyster beds, mangrove habitats, seagrass beds, and all coral reef zones.   Distribution: Caribbean, Texas.   Natural History Notes: O. angulata is one of the most common shallow water brittle stars of the Caribbean. Population densities can exceed 100 individuals per liter of algae and 16 indiviuals per gram of dry sponge. The species is preyed upon by many fish species and is parasitized by a small eulimid snail, Vitreolina arcuata. The species' resistance to physical stresses such as temperature and salinity is low, but it has has an opportunistic strategy of rapid dispersal and colonization. In the tropics, the species spawns year-round. Individuals each have 10 gonads and the ovaries contain whitish eggs 0.1 mm in diameter.   Depth: 1-540 m.   Characteristics: O. angulata grows to 10 mm in disk diameter with arms 80 mm long. The species is highly variable in its spine arrangement and disk color. It differs from other Ophiothrix in the region by having numerous short, delicate, bifid and trifid spines, sometimes interspersed among long thin spines on the disk and sometimes on the radial shields. The dorsal surface of the disk may be pink, rose, violet, blue, purplish, orange-red, crimson, brown, gray, or green. Ams usually have a median stripe of lacy pattern of black, white, or a contrasting color.