A woman has captured an amazing moment on camera where a bizarre fish swimming over the coral.
Sabrina Signer, a waitress and underwater photographer, came across the feather starfish in March 2023 and was mesmerised by its movements.
Recently travelling to Bali, Indonesia, with her friends, she decided to go for a swim.
Little did she know what amazing creatures she’d come across.
“It is not that common to come across feather stars,” the 29-year-old told http://NeedToKnow.co.uk
“They usually sit on a rock and don’t move at all and look like a plant!
“And then sometimes you can accidentally bump into them while swimming!”
Feather stars, known as Crinoids, are marine animals in the Crinoidea family, also including starfish, sea urchins and sea cucumbers.
They usually sit on the sea floor, attaching themselves by a stalk from their bodies, and have even been known as sea lilies because of this.
Sabrina, from Switzerland, added: “I have done over 500 dives in Bali and only ever seen these two or three times since 2011!
“I was super excited to see it swimming, I loved stopping to enjoy the show.
“It was mesmerising!
“They have no heart or brain! so I mean how?
“Plus they come in so many different colours and sometimes tiny crinoid shrimps use them as a home.”
Feather stars eat for seven hours daily and do it by filtering water from organisms and particles.
Sabrina, who used a Sony RX100 to capture the moment, said: “They come in several colours and look poison to other predators.
“This little guy had around 20 arms where others can have up to 200!
“They can also move up to five centimetres per second but sit normally without any movement on rocks or reef.”
She shared the incredible video she captured on Instagram, where it gathered over 169,000 views.
In the clip, the feather star can be seen swimming, fluttering its many arms around as it swims over the coral reef.
The clip was captioned: “Rare mesmerising swimming feather star,” and gained 10,700 likes as well as thousands of comments from amazed users.
One person said: “I bet that tickles.”
Jazz added: “Reminded me of Donkey Kongs water level creatures.” [sic]
Another fan wrote: “WOW, just WOW!!! Amazing photo!!!!!!!” [sic]
Someone else commented: “A sea spider… no thank you!”
“I need one of these in my lava lamp,” added another user.
“Magical in every way,” said one fan.
“That’s so beautiful,” wrote Ammar.
“I’d lose my mind hell nah,” commented Shea. [sic]
Sabrina said: “I just want to create awareness on how beautiful and special our planet Earth is.
“And to inspire a positive change.”
