brittle star regrowth

"Billy" wrote in message
...
I've read in several places that brittle's will regrow limbs, though
will rarely do so in captivity. Lo and behold, my green brittle is
doing just that. Curiouser and curiouser....


I've had a green brittle star for over seven years. The first month I had it,
it lost part of a limb (I'm not sure how it happened), which grew back
completely within several weeks. Last year, I had an anemone that got sick and
started wasting away. The brittle star took a liking to it and tried to eat it.
Well, it managed to eat part of it, but the stinging cells obviously didn't
agree with it very well, as it developed a gaping hole completely through its
'body'. That too healed, but it took many months for it to fully recover, and
it has been very very shy ever since. It rarely comes out from under the rocks
now. It is rather large though (about 19" from extended arm to extended arm, in
the maximum stretched direction). Brittle stars are known to have very robust
immune systems, and are being studied exactly for that reason.