Do starfish split?

[sadie]

I know they can drop arms and those arms will become starfish, but this one looks like it is splitting.  Do they do that?  this is the best picture I could get.  It's on the back wall seen through my cave.

 

[Tamberav]

6 minutes ago, sadie said:

I know they can drop arms and those arms will become starfish, but this one looks like it is splitting.  Do they do that?  this is the best picture I could get.  It's on the back wall seen through my cave.

 

 

This starfish does, it is an asterina. I have seen them basically ripping themselves in half by walking too different directions. 

[Tired]

Asterinas and similar starfish mainly reproduce by splitting, which is what lets them populate in reef tanks. It's pretty cool. Sometimes they don't grow more legs first, so you'll just have a couple of triangles walking around until they fill out the legs they don't have yet.

[sadie]

cool.  I almost gave him away last month.  I read that some asterinas eat coral.  I figured better be safe than sorry, but I didn't see any damage done, so I kept him.  I have a couple tiny white ones.  I am keeping my eye on all of them.  The only thing I have seen is a little coraline eaten off my rocks.  for now I am okay with that.

 

thanks all

[Tired]

Asterinas and aquilonastra stars (typically all referred to as asterinas) are by and large harmless. Generally they only eat coral when starving, but there are some exceptions. If you haven't seen coral damage yet, it's probably fine.