Serpent Star Missing Arms

[Zoous]

:frown:

During the past couple of months I notice that parts of the serpent star's arms are gone and this morning I notice my serpent star was missing the entire arm!!! How can this be?

Anyone have any ideas why this is happening?

 

[herman]

1. Something is eating it.
2. Likes to play with powerheads.
3. Aquired leprosy.
4. Not to worry, it will grow back

 

[Tonyscoots84]

hey hermz doesnt it make other stars by letting go a piece of its leg... :bunnies:

thats if it wasnt something herman has mentioned up top...

 

[masterswimmer]

My Linckia dropped a leg. Not only did the leg grow back, but the missing leg formed what's called a comet. The leg had locomotion and moved very very slowly around the tank. As the legs started to grow, it moved around MUCH faster.

The mother:

The 'leg' turning into a comet:

Turning into a full fledged Linckia:

swimmer

 

[LeslieS]

I cannot wait until I have things like that happen!!!!!

 

[masterswimmer]

I cannot wait until I have things like that happen!!!!!

:lol: Leslie. See now that's what we don't want to happen to noobs! YOU CAN WAIT. Keep telling yourself that. :flirt:

Those things can't happen in a young tank. Your tank has to mature.

BTW, I know you were just saying that tongue in cheek. I wanted to impress those thoughts on the other young noobs reading this too.

swimmer

 

[LeslieS]

I looked up echinoderm reproduction in one of my reef encycolopedias that I bought before I even decided to get a tank. The book didn't mention the commets :division: - which are incredibly cool. It did say that starfish can reproduce asexually by fertilizing their own eggs. This occurs in low starfish poplulation density areas. So even if you guys only have one seastar, they have more than one, or two.....or three reproduction options. That means more opportunities for every one to use the :bunnies: sign :lol2:

 

[masterswimmer]

Correct Leslie. The most common misconception is that part of the central disk has to be attached to the leg that 'falls off'. My comet was only 1/2 a leg when it became detached. So the remaining mother star had 4.5 legs. There was no central disk whatsoever attached to the dropped leg.

The comet was about 6 months old when I took that pic. The weirdest thing was watching just the 1/2 leg move about the tank. Freaky. It moved incredibly slow as you can imagine. As soon as it became a comet, the speed increased exponentially. Even at the size seen in the pic.

swimmer

 

[LeslieS]

This is funny. You can write about a topic, I'll go look it up and write something more, and then you can expand on it. We could publish it as Mr. Rogers for Reefers.

:lol2: I crack myself up.

 

[masterswimmer]

Very :funnypost:

Let me be Mr. Greenjeans instead. Mr. Rogers trains were ok, but otherwise, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz :lol2:

swimmer

 

[Zoous]

What would take a bite or eat a serpent star? Anyone has any ideas.

 

[masterswimmer]

What would take a bite or eat a serpent star? Anyone has any ideas.

Not sure about a serpent star, but Harlequin Shrimp eat starfish (Linckia's I believe) just about exclusively.

swimmer