Mutant Starfish

[SurpriseReefer]

I was at a LFS today and they had what I thought was a Red Fromia Starfish, it was marked "Red Linkia" for $20! I have seen them at other LFS for much more so I figured "now's a good time to get this", so I did. Well after acclimating it I placed it in the tank and low and behold it has 6 legs (or is it arms?) :eek2:

My question is...Is this normal, do I have some sort of alien starfish morph going on, maybe it's getting ready to split (do they do that?)...I just think now it looks funny!

Hope someone can help, thanks in advance! :wavehand:

 

[JokerGirl]

Mine has 6 legs as well....

From what I understand, 6 legs generally occur when the star was formed through asexual reproduction (the dropping of a leg). The leg turns into a star, and sometimes grows 5 legs instead of 4.

 

[LeslieH]

Are you sure it's a Fromia? I couldn't tell from the picture but of course you can see the real thing. There are many species which normally have more than 5 legs. On my coast one of the sun stars (Solaster paxillatus) has 12 legs or so but that's nothing compared to the sunflower star (Pycnopodia helianthoides) which has up to 26.

 

[chrisstie]

That looks fromia to me. I saw one the other day with only 4 legs. Not sure whats up with that

 

[greenbean36191]

It looks like Fromia to me too. It's not unheard of for the occasional mutant to have 6 legs, but it's not that common. It has nothing to do with how they reproduce.

 

[JokerGirl]

I'm trying to find it, Greenbean, but a while back I had read an article on the reproduction of Linckia stars, and it had suggested that Linckia with 6 legs may have been due to the star having been formed from a dropped leg. It had something to do with the genes being encoded for 5 legs, and not recognizing the original dropped leg as a pre-exisiting body part, so they continue to grow 5 legs thus resulting in 6.

It was in a scientific journal down at the IU library... may take me a while to find it again.

 

[madadi]

i have the same one but with 5 legs. i bought it for 25 and i thought it was a good deal thats why i snatched it so fast!! ive had it for a while and it seems happy. its all over the tank but i have no clue what it eats. its bigger now then when i got it so it must be eating something hehe