Stars In The Sea
When it comes to marine life, people will always think of sharks, and that sharks are ferocious predators in the ocean.
Who would have thought that the starfish, perched on the sand or reef, is also a predator?
Starfish activities can not be as flexible as sharks, rapid, its main prey is some of the slower action of marine animals, such as shellfish, sea urchins, crabs, and sea anemones.
Starfish often adopt a slow and meandering strategy when feeding, slowly approaching the prey, using the carpal tube foot to catch the prey and the whole body wrapped around it, the stomach bag from the mouth, the using digestive enzymes so that the prey outside its body dissolved and absorbed by it.
The starfish is an integral link in the marine food chain and plays a role in keeping the biota in balance.
There are about 2,000 species of sea stars worldwide, with the largest number of species found in the northeastern Pacific waters from Alaska to California.
In the natural food chain, predators and prey are often in a battle of life and death.
To escape from starfish predation, the predated animal will react with evasion.
Whenever a starfish touches a large sea cucumber, it rolls violently in the water and escapes before the starfish can get a firm grip on it.
Scallops also have a unique skill in avoiding starfish. When a starfish approaches, the scallop will close its shell and swim away quickly.
These animals have evasive abilities that have evolved.
Starfish take great care of their offspring, often erecting their bodies into an umbrella after laying their eggs, allowing them to hatch inside to avoid predation by other animals.
The hatchlings drift around with the seawater to feed on plankton and eventually grow into large starfish.
The food of the starfish is shellfish.
When the starfish want to eat mussels, will first use the powerful suction cups to open the shell, and then the stomach from the mouth to eat the body of the mussel.
The economic value of the starfish is not much, can only be dried to make powder for agricultural fertilizer.
Because it preys on shellfish, it is very harmful to shellfish farming.
Starfish's trick is that it can regenerate, some starfish as long as there is a stump of the arm can grow a full body again.
Starfish can regenerate naturally after their carapace and body disc are damaged or cut themselves.
Any part of a starfish can be regenerated into a new starfish.
Scientists are exploring the mystery of the starfish's regenerative ability to gain insight and seek a new medical treatment for humans.