Starfish Habitat and Lifecycle
Have you ever wondered about starfish habitat or lifecycle? Do starfish actually live in under rocks like Patrick the Starfish from Spongebob Squarepants? And how exactly do starfish live, reproduce and eat? Here are some basics.
About Starfish
There are more than two thousand types of starfish in the oceans of the world. They are extremely well adapted to their environments and can survive extreme duress—as demonstrated by their ability to regenerate after having lost large portions of their bodies.
Starfish Habitat
The preferred starfish habitat is a rocky underwater place. For most starfish, this is the dark deeps of the ocean. Of course, you can also find starfish throughout the ocean. Another favorite habitat for many kinds of starfish is the coral reefs. Although starfish are amazingly well adapted to the waters of the World’s oceans, the same dangers that face other species because of habitat loss endanger the starfish.
Starfish eat mollusks, clams, and small fish. Their mouths are right where you would expect them to be, at the center of their bodies, but what you might not know is that their arms also excrete digestive juices so that when they trap prey they are ready to start softening them up even before they reach their central stomachs. In addition, many starfish have the capacity to eat creatures much larger than themselves through a special adaptation. For example, when they come across a clam that is too large for them to fit into their mouths they are able to “spit” their stomachs out through their mouths and into the clam’s shell. Once inside of the clam’s shell the stomach “swallows” the clam and digests its prey before the starfish “sucks” its stomach back into itself.
One unusual type of starfish is the Crown-of-Thorns starfish that lives in the coral beds of the Pacific and Indian Oceans. The Crown-of-Thorns is so called because of the protective layers of poisonous spines that cover it like a porcupine’s quills. These spines are not offensive but defensive. They help to keep predators from preying on this kind of starfish. The Crown-of-Thorns actually feeds on coral polyps that it uses its extracting stomach to feed on. Despite this defense, many sea creatures still find ways of preying on this kind of starfish.
In case you are curious, if you were to come into contact with the Crown-of-Thorns you would know it immediately. The sting is equivalent to sting of a jellyfish in terms of pain. Similarly, you would also be likely to feel nauseas and then to vomit. The site of the sting is also likely to linger for weeks afterwards.
Starfish Reproduction
Starfish are one of the species that breed by releasing their gametes in the waters and letting them become fertilized while floating free. There are some exceptions to this method of reproduction. A few known species take their cues from chickens and sit on their eggs, thus incubating them. In addition, there is at least one known species that keeps the fertilized eggs inside of his mouth until they are ready to be released into the waters.
Starfish Sight
Something you may not know about starfish is that they actually do have eyes, but they don’t have them where you might expect. Starfish do not have eyes at the center of their bodies. Their eyes, called ocelli, are on the ends of their arms. They are nowhere near as sophisticated as human eyes, however. Starfish ocelli, like the eyes of jellyfish and flatworms, only see light and dark.
Their eyesight, limited though it is, is just one sign of the complex brain and nervous system of these unique creatures.