While closely related to sea stars, brittle stars use their long arms to move across the seafloor, instead of tube feet as sea stars do. This species has a small central disc that is separated from the five long thin arms. The arms can grow up to 4.7 inches (12 cm) long and the disc can be up to 0.8 inches (2 cm) in diameter. The color of this species varies from pale mauve, pink, yellow, red or brown. It feeds on plankton and tiny particles that float past.