Starfish feet... the other white meat?

[dave green]

(yes... I've cut and paste this from another forum, but it'll save me re-typin' it!)

Saw something at work I've never seen before (although i shouldn't be surprised)...

The conspiculatis angel came out checking on this gargantuan starfish ("gargantuan" I love that word... never had a chance to use it in a sentence). He laid down low, stuck his head under and nipped off one of the tube feet... then he did it again on the other side.

It got me to wondering... evidently this is normal behavior... but how, or does this affect the starfish in an adverse manner (other than it probably hurting like hey-yell and having to replace a tube foot)?

 

[jmaneyapanda]

That angel is gonna kill the star. My emperor used to do the same thing, and the starts would just wither away. Fish are smart, they know that when the peck at one side, the star will hunker down on that side, but the the other side exposed. SO they just work their way around.