Asterias forbesi Brown Starfish cm 2-4 Star Fish Sea Star Echinoderma Asterozoa Asteroidea Asteriidae

Description

Origin : Atlantic Ocean

Asterias forbesi Brown Star Fish cm 2.5-4.5 Starfish Sea Star  Echinoderma Asterozoa Asteroidea Asteriidae.
Family: Asteriidae.
Common name: Forbes Sea Star.
Syn. Asteracanthion berylinus, Asteracanthion forbesi, Asteracanthion novaeboracensis, Asterias arenicola , Asterias crassispina.

Asterias forbesi, commonly known as the Forbes Sea Star, is a species of starfish of the family Asteriidae. It is found in shallow waters in the northwestern Atlantic Ocean and in the Caribbean Sea.
Asterias forbesi usually has 5 arms but occasionally has 4 or 6. Like many other species of starfish, the upper surface is covered by blunt conical protrusions which give it a rough appearance. Some of these are pedicellariae, small pincers that can grab objects.
Near the tip on the underside of each arm there are small eyespots.
Asterias forbesi feeds on bivalve molluscs and other marine invertebrates. He can open the shells by grabbing the two halves with the ambulacral pedicels and forcing them separately. He then inserts his stomach, turns it upside down in the process and secretes the enzymes, digesting the body of the mollusk in situ.
Starfish can locate their prey with chemoreception.
The sexes are separated: sperm and eggs are released into the sea and fertilization is external. Starfish in any area can synchronize their gamete emission which will increase the chances of ongoing fertilization. The eggs hatch into bipinnary larvae that form part of the zooplankton and develop for a period of about three weeks before settling on the sea floor and undergoing metamorphosis into a juvenile sea star.