How do starfish eat? It's just a nightmare! (7 photos)

A photograph of a starfish with large buttocks taken by a visitor to a California aquarium appeared on the Internet five years ago. This is the very case when we can say with confidence that this starfish has arms growing out of its butt. After all, the rays of these echinoderms are also called hands.





Starfish with buttocks. Photo from the site https://www.cryptozoo.ru/

Of course, these are not buttocks. The star simply holds on to a stone with both hands (the bottom ones in the photo) and eats something, while relaxing the rest of his hands. This is exactly how Nate Jaros, a specialist in fish and invertebrates, explained the appearance of her “butt.”



Starfish. Photo from the site https://travelask.ru/

The fact is that the mouth of starfish is located below - on the ventral side. Having discovered prey, a gaping bivalve mollusk, for example, the star wraps its arms around it, sticks its small legs to its valves and pushes them apart with muscular effort.

Have you ever tried to open a live mussel or oyster with your bare hands? Couldn't it work without a knife? Can you imagine what power is hidden in this seemingly harmless beauty?





Starfish. Photo from the site https://morskaja-skazka.livejournal.com/

And then something terrible happens!

The starfish has two stomachs - lower and upper. So, the lower stomach turns inside out, penetrates the open shell, envelops the delicate body of the mollusk and begins to digest it right in the shell.



Starfish mouth. Photo from the site https://travelask.ru/

The partially digested food is then drawn into the upper stomach, where the process continues.

Two digestive tracts extend from the upper stomach into each ray of the star - ten in total. And further digestion of food occurs there.



A starfish snacks on a bivalve mollusk. Photo from the site https://travelask.ru/

Waste products are excreted through the anus, located on the back of the starfish - somewhere in its very middle.

If you suddenly decide to feed a starfish, do not confuse which side to offer it the tasty treat from.



Starfish.

Apparently, that visitor to the aquarium captured the process of a starfish eating food.

And after wandering around the Internet, I found for you another beautiful starfish with a pumped up butt. He probably eats too.



Starfish with pumped buttocks.