Brittle Starfish Arm fragment growing!!!

[jafrancis]

I had a green brittlestar (that I traded)...during that "capure", he lost about 1/2 inch of his arm, so I kept it and put it in a fuge and now (1 week later) it is about an inch long!!!! Will it continue to grow or will it die soon...I'm actually surprised that it has lasted sooooo long and is GROWING!!!

 

[moby]

Don't be suprised if after a few months you have another entire BS in your fuge growing fat and happy!
They are very capable of doing this! :happyfish
Moby

 

[celacanthr]

I believe they have to have part of the central disk to grow back into a complete brittle star.

 

[rara12]

Originally Posted by CELACANTHr
I believe they have to have part of the central disk to grow back into a complete brittle star.
in my marine bio class we learned about this and turns out that in old greece they would cut all the arms of the starfish cause they ate the oysters or something and all the arms would grow into stars and they had a reel problem...lol

 

[celacanthr]

This actually happened for a very long time, and ended only fairly recently. it still happens in some parts of the world.
I still think that a part of the oral disk has to intact for it to regrow.

 

[moby]

Well, only one real way to solve the question. Lets have jafransis monitor the piece and see what happens.
We could even put some money on it and make it interesting!

I think you'll see another BS in a few months or even weeks.
Moby

 

[viet-tin]

I had the same thing. Not sure if they grow but expanded after awhile and they did thrive in my fuge for a few weeks but afterwards they dissolved into the water.

 

[jafrancis]

I will keep everyone posted....still goin' so far

 

[nemo's mom]

I bought a brittle with 2 missing arms. He's fully regenerated. Star fish are able to "drop" an arm if they feel threatened as part of their escape technique. He will fully regenerate and become big and happy

 

[jafrancis]

I re-read my original post and it is a bit unclear. I do not have the GBS just the piece of the arm....which is still goin' BTW.

 

[jafrancis]

The arm frag is still alive (moving...responses to a touch) but does not appear to be getting any larger. It's been over a month now.

 

[moby]

***) ***)
Moby

 

[molamola]

OPhiura here.....I just happen to work with MolaMola

Brittlestars will NOT grow, as a general rule, a new animal from an arm.
This only occurs in some, not all species of seastars.
Historically they (some predatory stars) were chopped up thinking this would kill them. Happened on Chesapeake oyster beds and more recently with the Crown of Thorns star, Acanthaster, in the Indo Pacific. BIG mistake. They simply created new stars.
As a general rule (another general rule) a certain amount of the central disk is required. In brittlestars, 3 arms are needed to properly move. Damage to more than half the animal is often catastrophic (for the animal) and many do not recover.
However, single arms can live quite some time and continue moving.
My prof in school had a "pet arm" of a sea star. An amusing story, sad as well...it would wander the tank, find a tasty bivalve, pass it to the "mouth" only to have it harmlessly fall off the end.

It lived for months, probably "starving" or gaining some energy from digesting internal structures,
I would be very interested in photos if anything more happens, but in all likelihood, the arm will die in time. If you can take a photo series over time it would be interesting.

 

[ophiura]

BTW - I verify that the above post was from me on MolaMola's computer

 

[jafrancis]

So I decided for the purposes of science to go buy a few different starfish and I have cut them all up into different lengths. I then put them into a small tank and am watching to see what will happen.....
JUST JOKING EVERYBODY..

...but I will get some pics up when i get a chance.

 

[sinner's girl]

that's just creepy...but then, I read too many books. I would not want an arm growing in my tank.

 

[moby]

Good, I'm glad you saw this post ophiura, since you are the "resident" expert. I had an experience about 11 years ago where the arm regenerated into an entire BS. But it was so long ago I can't remember what type.

I was curious if you could tell us which ones have this ability since it has never happened since then.
I would love to know what I had and if that was a "freak" occurance or not.
Moby

 

[ophiura]

As a general rule, brittlestars do not appear to have this ability (to grow from just an arm). Now and then people do have them regenerate when they have at least part of the central disk, but it becomes less and less likely as the amount of damage to the disk increases. I would be interested to know more if you recall what type it was.
I'll add thought that there is only so much we know about these animals as there are not a lot of experts anymore (many of us seem to move on :notsure: ) and there are limited funds to study such things as this. Many may have abilities we are not totally aware ofl....

 

[dc2mlbsm]

bump!!!!!!!!!! i know its been a long time but im interested to see if its still alive

 

[chris57]

most star fish are able to reproduce asexually to get a another star fish you can cut off an arm and it will grow into a starfish if the arm is long enough there is no exact measurement, or it will starve and stop growing. but the damage done to the originally star could be fatal to it if too many arms are taken off. it will be unable to move and feed its self and it will starve and loose the energy it needs to regenerate it depends on the species and health of the specimen to determine wheter it can reproduce asexually and regenerate. thus concludes starfish biology 101.