How do starfish eat?

Answer 1

Sea star digestion is carried out in two separate stomachs. They are called the cardiac stomach and the pyloric stomach. The cardiac stomach, which is a sack like stomach located at the center of the body may be everted - pushed out of the organism's body and used to engulf and digest food. Some species 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. Once the stomach is inserted inside the shell it digests the mollusk in place. The cardiac stomach is then brought back inside the body, and the partially digested food is moved to the pyloric stomach. Further digestion occurs in the intestine and waste is excreted through the anus on the aboral side of the body.

Because of this ability to digest food outside of its body, the sea star is able to hunt prey that are much larger than its mouth would otherwise allow including arthropods, and even small fish in addition to mollusks.

Some echinoderms 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.

Answer 2

Starfish, for the most part, push out their stomach as they sit on top of the item they intend to eat. Some sea stars eat invisible film algae, diatomic algae, shellfish, corals and other invertebrates as well as fish even! They then slowly digest the item and suck their stomach back in.

This is easiest seen by having someone at your local fish store feed a piece of shellfish or fish flesh to a chocolate chip starfish while it's on the glass. It's actually a quite fascinating thing to behold ... and a good reminder of why chocolate chip starfish are NOT reef safe!!!

Answer 3

What do Starfish eat?

Starfish are carnivores (they eat meat)
Like clams, oysters, and fish
Sometimes starfish eat other starfish.

How do Starfish eat?
Starfish eat by surrounding their prey with their arms.
Then, they push their stomach out through their mouths.
Finally, starfish push their stomachs against their prey and digest it.

Answer 4

how seastars feed. I'm going to use the ochre star, Pisaster ochraceus, as an example. Seastars have two stomachs, one of which can be everted out of the animal's mouth. When scavenging on dead things, the star can simply plop out its stomach onto the food. Digestive enzymes go to work on the food, and the resulting slurry is slurped up as the stomach is retracted back into the star's body. This morning I took a photo of a seastar that had everted its stomach onto the algal film growing on the side of its tank. The frilly structure in the center of the animal's body is the everted stomach

Answer 5

Sea stars do not have movable skeletons, but instead possess a hydraulic water vascular system. The water vascular system has many projections called tube feet, located on the ventral face of the sea star's arms, which function in locomotion and aid with feeding.

Link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starfish

Answer 6

Some starfish eat small animals whole, but generally they push out their stomachs and devour their prey outside of their bodies...weird science!

Answer 7

I haven't heard that. But we are raping the sea of it's coral at a fast rate. So maybe they are turning to other food sourse.

Answer 8

There are two types. One eats coral/clams/other small creatures through the mouth in the middle of there underside. The other, which I have in my saltwater tank does not eat clams, etc. It absorbs plankton through its body, just like my coral does.

Answer 9

i think they eat up micro minerals thru their mouth.??.. but uh. when i was in the dominican rep. i cought a huge starfish, and starved it for 2 days in my hotel bathtub, then brought it with me to usa just to throw it out cuz it started to rot. kinda nasty, but i thought it would live without food. guess not./

Answer 10

They adsorb food through their moist skin.