Starfish Regeneration - new baby from a limb!

[missnoname123]

Just wanted to share something cool that I haven’t seen discussed often. Tank is about a year old. Started off at 20g and upgraded to 55g couple of months ago. Got this orange starfish about half a year ago. When it dropped its limb, I wanted to remove it at first, but we’ve noticed it’s been moving around the tank, so decided to leave it be. I believe the “limb” is about 3 months old now, and it’s been growing steadily! Can rarely snap a photo of it since it’s spending most of the time in the rockwork, but as you can see 4 new limbs on a baby are well-defined, and new mouth is clearly visible. I’ve no idea how and what was it eating when it was just a severed body part, but it’s fascinating to see the baby and the mother together doing great. Mother’s limb has been completely healed by now as well.

 

[blaxsun]

That is so weird!

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

It is pretty cool...some starfish can reproduce that way. There's a Linckia species that does the same.

 

[Turkey head]

So weird. I love it