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In certain species of starfish, the females brood their eggs – either by simply enveloping them [33] or by holding them in specialised structures. Brooding may be done in pockets on the starfish's aboral surface, [34] [30] inside the pyloric stomach (Leptasterias tenera) [35] or even in the interior of the gonads themselves. [31]
A molluscivore is a carnivorous animal that specialises in feeding on molluscs such as gastropods, bivalves, brachiopods and cephalopods.Known molluscivores include numerous predatory (and often cannibalistic) molluscs, (e.g. octopuses, murexes, decollate snails and oyster drills), arthropods such as crabs and firefly larvae, and vertebrates such as fish, birds and mammals. [1]
Generalist and omnivorous [5] predators like this fish crow, Corvus ossifragus, eat eggs among many other prey when they have the opportunity.. Generalist predators can have a substantial effect on ground-nesting birds such as the European golden plover, Pluvialis apricaria: in Norway 78.2% of nests of this species were preyed on.
Like other starfish in the family Asteriidae, Marthasterias glacialis is a predator and feeds mostly on bivalve molluscs and other invertebrates. [6] It has been found that secondary metabolites known as saponins , found within the starfish's tissues, have a dramatic effect on the whelk Buccinum undatum .
Asterias amurensis, also known as the Northern Pacific seastar and Japanese common starfish, is a seastar found in shallow seas and estuaries, native to the coasts of northern China, Korea, far eastern Russia, Japan, Alaska, the Aleutian Islands and British Columbia in Canada.
Adult fish also prey on fish eggs and larvae. For example, haddock were observed satiating themselves with herring eggs back in 1922. [14] Another study found cod in a herring spawning area with 20,000 herring eggs in their stomachs, and concluded that they could prey on half of the total egg production. [17] Fish also cannibalise their own eggs.
The common starfish, common sea star or sugar starfish (Asterias rubens) is the most common and familiar starfish in the north-east Atlantic. Belonging to the family Asteriidae , it has five arms and usually grows to between 10–30 cm across, although larger specimens (up to 52 cm across) are known.
The gonads release eggs and sperm which rise to the surface where the eggs are fertilised. They have large yolks and the developing larvae rely on this and do not feed. They can swim and they drift with the currents as part of the zooplankton. They later sink to the seabed and undergo metamorphosis into juvenile starfish. [3] [5]