It's Alive ???

[o.c.d.]

My very large green (death) brittle star must have annoyed one of my Tangs because yesterday at about noon I saw about a 3inch severed leg. Now the weird part it was I didn't pull the leg out till now, so 31 hrs later the leg is crawling around when I fed the tank it was actually reaching for food. Can anyone explain this?

 

[snulma1]

does it have any portion of the mouth still attached to it. I've heard of starfish that lose a leg with a portion of their mouth and regrow whole bodies.

 

[o.c.d.]

No not at all it is a very large animal leg tip to tip 15 inches, and the tip to 3"up was where the amputation occured.

 

[Cope]

I'm not sure but I think the cells in star fish can reproduce the entire animal? It would not surprise me. I just dont know how it would sustain it's self with no mouth?
BUT in a lab I think it can be done with a single cell from any part of the animal?
lets wait and see what the Bio majors have to say?
Cope

 

[greenbean36191]

Yes, it's still alive and will still respond to stimuli.

However, brittle/serpent stars don't have a whole lot of energy stores in their legs so single legs don't stay alive long enough to regenerate a mouth. They also aren't very effective at getting around without at least 3 legs, so the rule of thumb is that any fragment with less than 3 legs won't make it, regardless of how much of the mouth there is. Within a few weeks it will starve to death.

Some true sea stars can reproduce from just part of the leg, but many need at least part of the mouth.

 

[mrongi1]

As far as I can remember, when starfish clone themselves they split from the center. As long as there is part of the center disc they can regrow a whole new body. I imagine the limbs by themselves would be able to survive only a minimal amount of time before they died.

 

[sw1tched]

my puffer went to town on my starfish one day. ripped off 2 legs that crawled around the tank for a couple days & then I pulled them out. 50% of the body was gone as well. so it had like 1/2 a body & 2 1/2 legs.
still crawls around the tank slowly regrowing. been about 2-3 months now. I thought it was gone for sure.
-Joe

 

[amphirion]

Starfish can reproduce by only relaesing one of their legs. This happened to me with my multicolour linkia. here's a few pics:

Here you can see the mother and the baby (the leg) next to one another:

Here's the baby:

 

[Cope]

Wow cool pick! That guy is a little lop sided!

 

[o.c.d.]

What a interesting animal, Thanks for the info and pics

 

[frankrip]

If you decide to try to rescue the fragment, best to put in sump or somewhere it cant hide and die.

 

[widmer]

That is so TRIPPY! Straight out of that one disney movie whats it called again....

I wonder if you could start a worldwide starfish distribution service by throwing one of your starfish in a blender....;-)

 

[amphirion]

Thanks guys, this starfish was in my tank for one year and it has made at least 2 babies since I once saw 3 starfish in my tank at the same time. Maybe there are more then three, I'm not sure. I was really surprised when I saw this at first, it was amazing to observe this in the aquarium.

 

[greenbean36191]

If you decide to try to rescue the fragment, best to put in sump or somewhere it cant hide and die.

There's no way to rescue it. It will die within a few weeks, guaranteed. These are not true seastars and never regenerate from a single leg.

 

[adtravels]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11936213#post11936213 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by greenbean36191
Yes, it's still alive and will still respond to stimuli.

However, brittle/serpent stars don't have a whole lot of energy stores in their legs so single legs don't stay alive long enough to regenerate a mouth. They also aren't very effective at getting around without at least 3 legs, so the rule of thumb is that any fragment with less than 3 legs won't make it, regardless of how much of the mouth there is. Within a few weeks it will starve to death.

Some true sea stars can reproduce from just part of the leg, but many need at least part of the mouth.

my linkias throw legs all the time and then regenerate from the leg, so agreed

 

[frankrip]

My bad...for some reason I missed the "brittle" part! Brittle stars use the ability to cast off arms as an escape/survival mechanism.