Edited from the  Daily Mail Reporter
24th October 2009

According to the experts, this is the world's first recorded octo-fish.

The starfish has a remarkable ability to regenerate lost arms, sometimes growing two where there was one, meaning that six armed creatures are not unheard of, but this starfish was born with eight arms. 

A normal starfish has a central disc which is effectively the creature's control centre, housing its mouth, stomach, a specialised water pump, and all its essential organs.

Star attraction: The giant eight-legged creature below a regular five-limbed starfish.

This spiny starfish has not one disc but two, fused together in a figure-of-eight shape.

Like human conjoined or Siamese twins, he could be the product of a single egg and sperm which failed to separate properly early in the process of development.

Douglas Herdson, a Plymouth-based marine fish biologist, said: 'I think it's probably conjoined twins. It is quite feasible that it is a conjoined twin due to the first fertilised egg not completely separating. I have never heard of one before.'

He appears to be in perfect health and at ten inches in diameter, is bigger than the average specimen and was caught in a crabpot.

In fact, his extra limbs could be an advantage at mealtimes, as they should make it easier to grab and prise open tasty mussels.

The spiny starfish, named after the lines of bulbous spines that run along each arm, it is one of the most voracious members of the starfish family and feeds on a variety of both living and dead food including fish, shellfish, molluscs and other starfish.

It lives on the rocky seabed at depths up to 600ft and is found in the Atlantic, the English Channel and the North Sea.

Starfish use the power of hydraulics to move the hundreds of tiny sucker feet which line the bottom of each arm.

Some eat prey which is too large by pushing their stomach out of their mouth and swallowing the food whole.