Six!

Among the hitchhikers on my handful of eelgrass, I found half a dozen infant stars*, no bigger than a pinhead, and still colourless. I photographed them on the orange lid of the pill bottle I take to the beach.

Miniature crawling snowflakes?

It wasn't until I was saving the photo that I realized what was different about them; instead of the 5 arms that most of our starfish have, these babies have six.

Marine Life of the Pacific Northwest lists four six-rayed starfish: Drab, Colourful, Rusty, and Polar six-armed stars. I have no idea which these are; they're too small to identify.

I dropped them in the tank, not really expecting them to survive. That was a week ago; this evening, one was climbing the wall.

*"Infant stars" sounds too formal for a wandering pinhead. I wonder; should I call them starlets? Or starlings?