starfish not well

[david999]

my orange starfish has 1 leg falling apart rest of him seems ok water tests ok i have been told this is commen will it grow back ?

 

[capncapo]

Yes, it IS common.

When dealing with a healthy starfish, the leg will grow back and the one that "fell" off could become another star.

When dealing with most starfish in most aquaria, the leg falling off is quite possibly a sign that your critter is starving to death and is on it's way to the great reef in the sky.

 

[CaveManNOhio]

Hey capncapo

In order for the other leg to become another star fish doesn't it have to come off with some of the mouth? I mean if the end of a leg falls off it wont become a starfish, but the leg would regenerate.

 

[capncapo]

It seems that with asteroid type stars a leg will regrow into a star. If you do a search of this forum, you'll find more than a single occurance of it happening.

 

[CaveManNOhio]

I never knew a leg with out a part of a mouth could grow into a new star fish. It makes me very curious has to how it can do such a thing. To bad people can't do so. Just goes to show you how amazing our ocean creatures can be.
Thank's for the new info.

 

[capncapo]

Caveman,

A little reading for you. As this thread states, only a very minute part of the "central disc" and not the mouth is necessary for the leg to regenerate a new body. The amount can be small enough as not to be visible.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=87436&highlight=leg+drop+star

 

[CaveManNOhio]

Thank's