Touch Tank Assignment Sea Star vs. Starfish

Should we call them Sea Stars or Starfish, expert opinion varies, but surprisingly they are not fish at all but echinoderms. Found in all oceans, Sea Stars prefer rocky crevasses and sandy regions in reefs. Most are found in inter-tidal zones, but some like the deep waters of the ocean. Starfish enjoy solitude though they assemble for reproduction. They seldom bred in marine aquariums, but Touch-Tank has heard stories of baby Sea Stars appearing in Marine Ecological Habitats’ original touch tank.

Sea Star vs. Starfish Facts:

• The mouth and stomach is located on the underside of their central disc.
• Before their food is absorbed, the stomach is pushed out of the body and placed over the food for digestion
• Smaller Starfish eat the microalgae found on rocks and algae mats.
• Larger Sea Stars eat other Starfish, Urchins, Clams, other bi-valves, some Anemones and Touch-Tank once heard of Starfish eating a recently molted lobster in an educational aquarium that was purchased with help from a Touch Tanks for Kids Grant.
  
• They have the ability to regenerate lost arms.
• They move about using a hydraulic system of water-filled channels.
  Some Starfish are detritivores meaning they eat decomposed animal and plant material, or organic films attached to substrate.

Your assignment, if you chose to accept it, post a comment on this blog regarding what species of Sea Stars are detritivores and share this information with your teachers, colleagues or classmates

• Some Sea Stars take advantage of the great endurance of their water vascular systems to force open the shells of bivalve mollusks such as clams and mussels, and inject their stomachs into the shells.

Your assignment, if you chose to accept it, post a comment on this blog regarding what species of Starfish are capable of finding food by cracking open a clam and digesting it and share this information with your teachers, colleagues or classmates

• Some Starfish have been shown to live for several weeks without food under artificial conditions it is believed that they may receive some nutrients from organic material dissolved in seawater.

Your assignment, if you chose to accept it, post a comment on this blog regarding what species of Sea Stars make the best residents for an educational touch tank, why and share this information with your teachers, colleagues or classmates.

Other things Touch-Tank whould like to know about Sea Stars or are they Starfish

What are their spines made of?

Do they have an Endocrine?

Where do Brittle Stars live?

How do they react when attract by predators?

How do they regenerate body parts?

What species eat decaying organic matter?

The important thing in the Sea Star vs. Starfish argument is to keep them under water during acclimation and placement in a marine aquarium. Touch-Tank thinks Serpent and Brittle Starfish make nice inhabitants for marine aquariums because their movement stirs the sand providing oxygen to the beneficial bacteria that lives in the tank. Please support Ocean Literacy, Donate Today!

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