starfish?

[ReeferMama]

couple of questions

first, what kind of starfish is this?

and second, what is it doing?

it was under the sand, where i heard it usually is, then it went up my rock and wrapped around a piece of the rock and started secreting a milk white substance. i tried to picture it. hopefully it will help.

 

[ReeferMama]

now its belly swelled up and went back under the sand, leaving the white milky stuff on the rock.

 

[bjohanson1234]

Starfish eat by pushing their stomachs out of their bodies to swallow something. Your starfish probably found something tastey in the LR and ate it. The white stuff might be some sort of secretion.

Sorry dont know the type of star you have

Brian

 

[yote]

That looks kinda like a Crown-of-thorns star.If it is,kill it.
And Bjs right about what its doing.Its ate something that was on the rock.

 

[Alexander]

not sure but lot of echinoderms breed in 2 ways. cloning by fragmentation is one. depending on the starfish they can either be sexual or asexual. many sea stars are hermaphordites and can release sperm and eggs in the water column by chemical or physical cues. My guess is it may have been attempting to reproduce. however if that happened there would have been a good amount released in the water column. did that happen or was it all pretty much stuck to the rock. hard to tell by the pictures.


The starfish looks similar to this Sand Sifting Starfish (Astropecten polyacanthus)

It could always be the eating thing too. he was correct on how they eat food. Just hard to tell.

 

[Alexander]

That looks kinda like a Crown-of-thorns star.If it is,kill it.
And Bjs right about what its doing.Its ate something that was on the rock.

Definitely not a crown of thorns. no way. they crown of thorns does not have 5 arms. they will grow anywhere from 12-19 arms. and can grow anywhere from the size of a dinner plate to the size of a school bus tire!

 

[ReeferMama]

it is a sand sifting star. that sounds like what the fish store told me. i thought it was reproducing or something like that but it didnt leave that much secretion behind. unless it was eating algae, that was the only thing on that spot of the rock.

thanx to all for ur input. its much appreciated.

 

[Alexander]

if it reproduces it wouldnt really leave it behind on some rock it would go into your water column more than sticking to rock. did that happen at all?

 

[ReeferMama]

o and the secretions stuck for only a lil bit but r now gone

 

[ReeferMama]

no just on the rock

 

[motorcyclereefer]

That could be a juvenile crown of thorns. The crown of thorns according to one page does not have a certain number of legs. Unique Australian Animals

 

[motorcyclereefer]

Double post but i just read that you found out that it is a sand shifting star.

 

[Alexander]

If you look at the starfish it looks very far from a crown of thorns. the only resemblence is the small spines on the very rim of the arms. it looks nothing like it. additionally the webpage you referece even said this: "the number of arms ranging from 6 to 23" even the absolute minimum this webpage states does not fall into the classification of crown if thorns starfish. and they typically have 12 or more. sorry not trying to argue this here but there is no way its a crown of thorns.

 

[dcantucson]

Alex I agree with you also. It looks nothing like a crown of thorns starfish. On the other hand I've had several sand sifting stars all of which looked the same. The starfish in question seems way too thorny to be a regular sand sifting starfish.

 

[ltljoker]

So does anyone really know what kind of starfish this is:confused: cause I really like it:cool:, and is it reef safe. were is Biff:compute: she would probably know

 

[motorcyclereefer]

No offense, I even thought of the 6 leg minimum afterwards. I thought hey it only had 5 legs so that couldn't be one. And then she said it stayed under the sand. But this post did get me into reading up on the Crown of Thorns and was intrigued. I didn't know that they had killed part of the Great Barrier Reef.

 

[Alexander]

Yeah its something that has become way too Overpopulated. Tons of divers trying to control it because there are few predators one is a species of nudibranch. Crazy stuff.

 

[ltljoker]

yea I saw a documetary were they are eating everything in site in australia and locals are doing whatever they can to stop them:shock:

 

[winyfrog]

Its a type of sand sifting starfish, it is reef safe. but the thorns on it hurts like a sive if you touch them so be careful, might even be a bit venomous. ( I had one at one time and accidentally grab it OUCH! it hurt for days)

to find out excatly which type it is try here Wetwebmedia, Aquarium, Pond, Marine and Freshwater Fish, reef tanks, and Aquatics Information

 

[yote]

Well,At least it DOES have thorns:mrgreen:

But.
I've seen that on the crown of thorns.Thats part of what happens when somethings natural predators are taken out of the equation.