How Do Starfish Reproduce?

PeterC99 · Dec 16, 2022

Bought a Red Starfish about 6 months ago. Now I’m staring to see baby Starfish. How do Starfish reproduce?

taricha · Dec 16, 2022

unrelated. The tiny white ones are asterina stars. They pull themselves in half to multiply and grow until somebody stops them. They have no connection to the large red one.

Miami Reef · Dec 16, 2022

taricha said:
unrelated. The tiny white ones are asterina stars. They pull themselves in half to multiply and grow until somebody stops them. They have no connection to the large red one.

Unrelated, what does your new profile picture mean? :)

ISpeakForTheSeas · Dec 16, 2022

As mentioned, the big star and little stars are unrelated (correlation rather than causation here) - the little stars are known as Asterina stars in the hobby (though they’re actually Aquilonastra stars, as Asterina stars are from a different genus in the same family).

Many starfish (such as Linckia guildingi and Aquilonastra stars) can reproduce both sexually and asexually - Aquilonastra stars typically (in our aquariums at least) reproduce asexually (fissiparously - i.e. through fission) by dropping legs that then grow into new stars which repeat the process. This is why you’ll frequently find Aquilonastra stars with some short legs and some long legs.

nuxx · Dec 16, 2022

Well when a boy starfish likes a girl starfish...

taricha · Dec 16, 2022

ISpeakForTheSeas said:
the little stars are known as Asterina stars in the hobby (though they’re actually Aquilonastra stars, as Asterina stars are from a different genus in the same family).

awesome. Thanks!

ISpeakForTheSeas said:
Aquilonastra stars typically (in our aquariums at least) reproduce asexually (fissiparously - i.e. through fission) by dropping legs that then grow into new stars which repeat the process.

I dug up this picture of one star (two?, 1.5?) that I caught in the process once.
kinda wild that it works like this.

taricha · Dec 16, 2022

Miami Reef said:
Unrelated, what does your new profile picture mean? :)

If you place a broad unfocused light source up to the edge of a glass hanna cuvette full of water, it acts as a lens and focuses the beam out the other side.
This happens in our checkers every time we click the button. The cuvette is positioned to act as a lens to focus the light from the tiny, low power LED onto the photodetector on the other side.
If you try it without the water in it, the refractive index gets messed up and it doesn't work. Pretty neat, huh?

vetteguy53081 · Dec 16, 2022

PeterC99 said:
Bought a Red Starfish about 6 months ago. Now I’m staring to see baby Starfish. How do Starfish reproduce?

Asexually and asterinas literally sever a leg and it grows into a new star and new one does the same reaching population

Miami Reef · Dec 16, 2022

taricha said:
If you place a broad unfocused light source up to the edge of a glass hanna cuvette full of water, it acts as a lens and focuses the beam out the other side.
This happens in our checkers every time we click the button. The cuvette is positioned to act as a lens to focus the light from the tiny, low power LED onto the photodetector on the other side.
If you try it without the water in it, the refractive index gets messed up and it doesn't work. Pretty neat, huh?

That’s really cool!

I thought it was a human pelvic bone X-Ray.

vetteguy53081 · Dec 16, 2022

taricha said:
If you place a broad unfocused light source up to the edge of a glass hanna cuvette full of water, it acts as a lens and focuses the beam out the other side.
This happens in our checkers every time we click the button. The cuvette is positioned to act as a lens to focus the light from the tiny, low power LED onto the photodetector on the other side.
If you try it without the water in it, the refractive index gets messed up and it doesn't work. Pretty neat, huh?

I knew this but never seen this type of image- wow

vetteguy53081 · Dec 16, 2022

Miami Reef said:
That’s really cool!

I thought it was a human pelvic bone X-Ray.

This looks like my thanksgiving turkey after we were done with it

LovinlifeinGuam · Dec 16, 2022

Depends on the species of starfish...perhaps not the species you're dealing with but many reproduce sexually by releasing eggs and sperm into the water column

PeterC99 · Dec 16, 2022

livinlifeinBKK said:
Depends on the species of starfish...perhaps not the species you're dealing with but many reproduce sexually by releasing eggs and sperm into the water column

So - Can this Starfish reproduce by itself?

ISpeakForTheSeas · Dec 16, 2022

PeterC99 said:
So - Can this Starfish reproduce by itself?

The big one seems to be Echinaster echinophorus, so probably not (the only Echinaster species I know of that reproduces by itself is E. luzonicus). The small ones (Aquilonastra sp.) yes.

LovinlifeinGuam · Dec 16, 2022

I agree with @ISpeakForTheSeas above post...speaking of starfish reproduction, there was another similar thread posted earlier about their reproduction habits if you're interested...not that it applies to your species but many echinoderms raise the part of their body up which is releasing the gametes in a certain pose as you can see here in these pics of a Fromia indica starfish and a sea cucumber...though you might find this interesting

HudsonReefer2.0 · Dec 16, 2022

taricha said:
If you place a broad unfocused light source up to the edge of a glass hanna cuvette full of water, it acts as a lens and focuses the beam out the other side.
This happens in our checkers every time we click the button. The cuvette is positioned to act as a lens to focus the light from the tiny, low power LED onto the photodetector on the other side.
If you try it without the water in it, the refractive index gets messed up and it doesn't work. Pretty neat, huh?

And I thought I had a lot of extra time on my hands…just sayin.