Starfish don’t move very fast. They move at an average of about 1 metre per minute, with a maximum speed of about 1.6 metres per minute. The speed of a starfish is directly proportional to the size of the starfish. In other words, the larger the starfish, the faster it can move.
There are 2000 varieties of starfish currently in the world. These beautiful creatures usually have 5 or more arms radiating from a central disc and are some of the most exotic looking creatures in the ocean. Did you know that they are more related to sea urchins and sand dollars than actual fish? This is because they do not have scales, fins or gills. Rather, starfish belong to the Asteroidea class and are called Asteroids! It seems befitting that a ‘star’ would belong to a class that means a heavenly object, doesn’t it?
These fascinating creatures use ocean currents to help them move over greater distances more quickly. For shorter distances they use their arms – which have special tubes – to travel. Each of a starfish’s arms also has eyes at the end of them! There are some starfish with 40 arms and each arm has an eye at the end. Such a starfish would have 40 eyes! A starfish mostly eats clams, mussels and oysters. It extends its stomach out of its mouth to eat its prey! And finally it can regenerate an arm if it is cut off. Weird, but amazing, isn’t it?
Picture Credit : Google
