Sea stars use asexual reproduction to produce offspring that will be genetically identical to the original. In sea stars this is called regeneration.
I have been fortunate enough to witness this process firsthand and was lucky enough to capture pictures in the various stages.
This is a picture of a sea star that would be referred to as a comet star, that came in as a hitchhiker on newly acquired live rock. A comet star is one that is regenerating from an arm that was either dropped or removed by a predator from the parent star. The body and small stump arms grew from the longer arm seen in the picture.
After a couple of months, it had grown quite a bit and started to take on the color of the parent.
Fast forward seven months and you can see that the comet star has developed into a completely new sea star. I am almost certain that this particular star is a Linckia multifora.
Two months after the picture above was taken, the parent star lost or dropped one of its arms and the process starts all over again.
I have been fortunate enough to witness this process firsthand and was lucky enough to capture pictures in the various stages.
This is a picture of a sea star that would be referred to as a comet star, that came in as a hitchhiker on newly acquired live rock. A comet star is one that is regenerating from an arm that was either dropped or removed by a predator from the parent star. The body and small stump arms grew from the longer arm seen in the picture.
After a couple of months, it had grown quite a bit and started to take on the color of the parent.
Fast forward seven months and you can see that the comet star has developed into a completely new sea star. I am almost certain that this particular star is a Linckia multifora.
Two months after the picture above was taken, the parent star lost or dropped one of its arms and the process starts all over again.
