I cut my starfish in half!!!!!! :-)

I finally worked up the balls to cut one of my starfish in half, I researched it for weeks and was extremely interested in doing it.... I'll post pics soon and allow the regrowing process. but so far so good. both halves are running around no problem..

I cut my Chocolate starfish (it might be a different kind.. cuz it's like a blueish gray) in 2... one piece is 3 legs and one is 2... i made absolute sure to include part of the mouth in each end and quarrentined it for a few hours to let it relax and rest..

Hopefully I'm not a jerk, and i did it right.... but the outcome should be 2 healthy starfish.. I'm aware it will proly take a few months for it to star growing and looking normal again..

I will update this as time goes on and if i master it, then I am awesome hahaha

interesting. Any pics?

ouch! but sounds soooo cool at ther same time

wow, I probably could not have done it!
I am very very interested to see how it goes! Any chance of weekly pics of the regrowth?

yeah i got pics... and they are technically not "alive" like in the sense you might think they are, so it's doesn't hurt them... it mainly pisses them off, more than anything..

here he is in the holding tank.

after the cut.

after resting for few hours.

the inside of the starfish.

back inside the tank.... he didn't, oops i mean, THEY didn't stay that way for long... both side begun moving around are are lookin good....

Am I retarded or what? lol, we'll see

lol wow i would never be able to do that!!!

to be honest, i realize it was a death sentence, but i personally wanted to try it... I am not irresponsible, i researched it to the MAX!

That's wild... keep us updated with pics!

Wow if it works great .... go pick up some harliquin shrimp beautiful shrimp that only eat starfish ....

If its successful and well documented it can be a library entry!
But I wont move it till you end up with 2 proper starfish

Elrollo wrote:

Wow if it works great .... go pick up some harliquin shrimp beautiful shrimp that only eat starfish ....

that would be a kool idea! those shrimp are awsome! BUT it would be a good idea to have way more than one starfish in a separate tank (mainly refugium) that way your not always picking off the same one everyday or everyother day. that way you give em all each time to regrow i have a buddy who has a 3.5g pico with a H shrimp and a 20L for a refugium Full of starfish! id say easily bout 12-13. about half were "splits" from the original he bought lol the rest he bought.

but back to the topic! KEGMAN your awsome!! lol
now that you git tha hang of starfish! get into the big bucks and start splitting Nems!!!!!
your star-stars look KOOL!! and healthy great job on the split!

ALK! thanks bro!! lol

AND...

ok here are some answers for questions I've been getting all around here and 3reef....

1. i did this to learn... i can easily buy another one, but i want to grow and learn in the salt water world, and the only way is to go balls deep and try it.

2. I cut it with a pair of Hair cutting (very sharp) scissors... note, the star was very hard to cut!!! like very hard.... and lucky i did it right but maybe next time I'd use something different...

3. i only cut it in half.. I guess technically you can cut it into 5 pieces, but i have no idea as to how many legs would grow back... if 5 complete starfish would grow... But I read that a "segment" needs a decent portion of the mouth go survive....

4. I don't know how long it will take to grow completely whole again, BUT i read that i might take around 3 months....

(UPDATE) day 2, both segments are still moving around and looks like they are eating.... the inside where i cut that was exposed looks a little bit better like it's starting to some what heal... so we will see how it goes.

THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH FOR YOU INTEREST AND OPEN MINDEDNESS!!!! This is a new prossess for me and all of you, and someone's gotta do it lol, so bare with me and check back for picturezs!! If I end up failing this project, well at sorry... hahaha trial and error..

Instead of scissors try a really sharp knife...one quick stroke with a good joint cleaver or french knife....very interesting topic

take a butcher knife to that b!tch!!!! lol one swing and youll have 2 very clean cut pieces!

Demonkegman wrote:

1. i did this to learn... i can easily buy another one, but i want to grow and learn in the salt water world, and the only way is to go balls deep and try it.

Sometimes the only way to learn is to do! And I am very very interested in this and have been for some time!

Demonkegman wrote:

3. i only cut it in half.. I guess technically you can cut it into 5 pieces, but i have no idea as to how many legs would grow back... if 5 complete starfish would grow... But I read that a "segment" needs a decent portion of the mouth go survive....

Cutting it in half was probably the best for the first time, your success rate will be higher

Demonkegman wrote:

(UPDATE) day 2, both segments are still moving around and looks like they are eating.... the inside where i cut that was exposed looks a little bit better like it's starting to some what heal... so we will see how it goes.

Sounds good so far!

Demonkegman wrote:

THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH FOR YOU INTEREST AND OPEN MINDEDNESS!!!! This is a new process for me and all of you, and someone's gotta do it lol, so bare with me and check back for picture's!! If I end up failing this project, well at sorry... hahaha trial and error..

I think its very cool that you are doing this experiment and documenting it! If it works you will have made a nice how to guide! If it does not work then we will all still have learned from it!
I think it very awesome you are trying this!

Update day 3... Both pieces are still active and eating, so far so good i guess...

the exposed insides look like they are closing up, obviously no growth yet, but looks like they are healing!!!


no need for more pics yet as both look exactly the same.

Very cool topic. I think it's awesome that someone's trying this and even more awesome that you did the research first. Keep us posted on how it goes! It must be an amazing thing to watch them regrow but I don't think it'd ever have the intestinal fortitude to do it.

Try for weekly pics, that's the best length of time between pics I'm thinking, it should be close enough but far enough apart to well document the regrowth.

Again, I think this is very awesome!

ok i will do for sure... i search other SW forums and no topics like this with documentation... soooo. i'll be there first... YAAY!

This is just awesome! Once they are 2 full stars again you can convert this to a library entry or even just copy paste it over there for the world to know that you have what it takes to try this

LOLjust think bout it....if you keep this up you have your own startfish buissness:)

all those stars lol
pics would be kool though. so we can see the growth rate once every week!
what do you feed em?

wow that will be so great to watch, take some pics!!, good luck!