Clams are eaten by starfishes ???

[MnFish1]

IMO, with the current available information, this is an example of Occam’s Razor where the simplest explanation would be that the scavengers are scavenging. That’s where my position comes from.

I disagree - occams razor would be that there is one cause for one problem. The clam died - the starfish are responsible. Notice - I'm just refuting your occams razor analogy - which doesnt make sense...

 

[DSC reef]

You don't what kind of asterina stars those are in the pic. So it's very possible not all asterina stars are reef safe. Your just making an assumption based on what your experience or what you heard or read. In my experience some are reef safe but there are some that aren't safe at all.

Reef safe does not mean it eats healthy tridacna tissue or even clams for that matter. I'm sorry but unless you can prove with actual science that an asterina eats healthy tridacna tissue then this is all assumption on both sides and that's all we have to go with just like other things in this hobby...our experiences

 

[DSC reef]

Once again, a thread derailed while going off into left field. @Bongo Shrimp I'm out because I see where this going. At least we could see and offer legit reason as that clam was clearly dying but I guess the others can't refute that.

 

[MnFish1]

Is there a species of asterina starfish that is a known mollusk predator?

1. Do you know those are asterina app?
2. There are a couple articles that asterina (a certain percent) eat coral).3
3. My guess is this is not a high priority for research....

But that said: http://www.statemaster.com/encyclopedia/Starfish

 

[Bongo Shrimp]

I disagree - occams razor would be that there is one cause for one problem. The clam died - the starfish are responsible. Notice - I'm just refuting your occams razor analogy - which doesnt make sense...

That’s definitely not how that works. This thread really did fall off the edge. With that, I’m out too @DSC reef .

 

[MnFish1]

That’s definitely not how that works. This thread really did fall off the edge. With that, I’m out too @DSC reef .

LOL yes - it is - occams razor suggests that rather than multiple causes of a problem - there is but one.

The medical interpretation of Occam's razor is often called diagnostic parsimony. This states that when a patient with multiple symptoms is being investigated the clinician should seek a single diagnosis rather than diagnosing two or more unrelated ones.

 

[slapshot]

No what it says is when you have two competing hypotheses with the same result you should select the one with the least assumptions

 

[slapshot]

I’ve been keeping saltwater for 42 years now. My reef is 30 years old. I have never seen that. On the shell yes because they eat algae and that grows on the shell. I would agree that scavengers be scavengers. I offer this hypothesis: if that were true the clams mantle would be covered with them. Doesn’t seem to and I’ve never seen that happen. I have seen lots of clams disintegrate over night.

 

[MnFish1]

I’ve been keeping saltwater for 42 years now. My reef is 30 years old. I have never seen that. On the shell yes because they eat algae and that grows on the shell. I would agree that scavengers be scavengers. I offer this hypothesis: if that were true the clams mantle would be covered with them. Doesn’t seem to and I’ve never seen that happen. I have seen lots of clams disintegrate over night.

Agreed - it was the eggs being seen in the shell that had me....... That had to take time. Or? maybe the eggs were not asterina

 

[xjiang7]

Agreed - it was the eggs being seen in the shell that had me....... That had to take time. Or? maybe the eggs were not asterina

As far as I know starfishes release their eggs into the water column. If there are eggs inside the shell (which I have a hard time to find) it should not be starfish

 

[nicodim55]

Asterina stars do not eat live clams, at least IME. I saw 2 of them attached to the outside shell of my maxima. I watched them for a while to see if they would get closer to the mantle but they didn’t, they just walked off and went about their business. They do munch on my zoas, that I know for sure!