Comet star
| Comet star | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Linckia multifora |
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Linckia multifora | ||||||||||||
| ( Lamarck , 1816) |
The comet star ( Linckia multifora ), also known as the holey starfish , lives in the Red Sea and the tropical Indo-Pacific , from East Africa to Japan , Hawaii and the islands of the southern Pacific . It is the most common starfish in large parts of its range . The comet star got its German name because of the irregular specimens that often occur due to the multiplication by division, which have arms of different lengths. Individuals that were created by severing a single arm resemble a comet if the missing, regrowing arms are only a few centimeters long.
features
Comet stars have a small body and long, thick arms that are round in cross-section. The animals, which reach 15 centimeters in diameter, are cream, light yellow, olive, light brown or greenish in color. The body is speckled with many dark or red, pore-rich spots. Comet stars usually have five arms, but since they often multiply asexually by division, one also sees specimens with four to seven arms and with different arm lengths.
Way of life
Adult comet stars live diurnally in coral reefs up to 40 meters deep. Comet stars feed on detritus , algae, carrion and small invertebrates . In addition to the asexual reproduction already mentioned, echinoderms reproduce sexually by releasing gametes into the water.
The starfish is attacked by three parasitic snails from the Eulimidae family : The parasitic snail Thyca ectoconcha is often found on the underside of the animals, and sometimes the related Thyca crystallina , which feeds on the host's tissue and body fluid with its proboscis . Stilifer linckiae , on the other hand, penetrates completely into the starfish and lives as an endoparasite protected under the skin, which swells into a bile, whereby the snail still has access to the outside water through an opening.
Aquaristics
Comet stars are often captured and imported for aquarium keeping. They are much more durable than most other starfish and do not harm other invertebrates. But even here most of the specimens only survive a few months. They are likely to starve to death because they cannot find enough food and the substitute food offered is not accepted.
literature
- Svein A. Fossa / Alf Jacob Nilsen: Coral reef aquarium Volume 6 , Schmettkamp Verlag, 1998, ISBN 3-928819-18-6
- Hans A. Baensch , Robert A. Patzner: Mergus Sea Water Atlas Volume 3, Mergus-Verlag, Melle, ISBN 3-88244-103-8
- Helmut Schuhmacher, Johann Hinterkircher: Lower marine animals . BLV Verlagsgesellschaft 1996, ISBN 3-405-14854-5
