Did You Know!?

Until I started visiting the aquarium again it never occurred to me that a starfish was an animal, a living creature that eats. Heck, it didn't even occur to me that they moved. And yep, I did say they eat. If you look at the picture below you can see the shell the starfish is absorbing.


The ones below show it eating seaweed. They have two stomachs - one for digesting and the other can be used to reach out and grab and then digest it's food. I read with some star fish, they use their vascular system to open the shell of something like a clam and then inject their stomach into the shell to eat it.

Star Fish

Star Fish

I never knew there were so many different kinds of star fish or that they could get as big as...well, some of these could easily cover my laptop and that's not including the arm thingees. (Click on any picture for larger view.)


This shot is of one of the bigger star fish and I believe (but don't quote me on this) that the dark stuff is sea weed that it was eating which was a shock to me. It never occurred to me that they ate but I no longer see them as these little things that just sit there.


This is another shot through the water of the petting tank though it was more like a shallow pool made of stone (like you might find in someone's garden) only it stretched about 20-30 feet and was full of star fish and anemones.


This is one of the bigger star fish that I said could cover my laptop. It's fuzzy and at first glance it looks as if it was covered with tiny pearls.

MORE FISHY STUFF

I haven't posted anything in a while. I haven't been anywhere to take pictures so I'll continue with some pictures from the Long Beach Aquarium. They're not perfect but I think they're worth sharing.

This is, let me see if I can remember what it was... a leafy seahorse? No, a Leafy Sea Dragon.




And... a starfish that was plastered against the window allowing perfect viewing of it's belly:



This sea turtle was as long as I was tall swimming back and forth across the huge tank:



I lucked up and was right on time to see a diver in one of the huge tanks. One of the guides in the crowd was actually carrying on a conversation with her. I wasn't paying any attention to what they were talking about (smile):