I love Starfish!!

They come in so many colors and sizes, are so incredibly strong and can regenerate limbs. How cool is that?

Here are 2 starfish stories…

ONE

When the boys were younger and we lived in Florida, we had a salt-water tank for their aquatic project with 4-H.  We could catch and raise several species of sea critters from the Gulf of Mexico and the Sarasota Bay, then release them back into the wild and catch some more. The kids seined in the Bay with other 4-H-ers for specimens.

 

The bottom of the tank consisted of small shells and sand and there were a few large pieces of rock and coral (found on the beach) for critters to hide by or in. Someone found a huge whelk shell with a hermit crab inside. This thing was big; about the size of my iPad. We decided to keep it for a little while and observe it. We also had a few urchins (2 types), snails, a crab and some other things. Later, one of the kids in the group found a starfish so we added it to the mix. After placing it in the tank we all got ready for our home-school club’s Christmas party and took off. Arriving home hours later, we found the starfish had been attacked.

It was missing two arms, one gone, the other sitting at the other end of the tank. Lucky for that starfish we lived close enough to the water to get it to safety. I can’t remember if we took it to the beach or put him in the canal across the street from our house. Starfish have interesting bodies which provide them protection from predators but they can break off their arms when threatened. Perhaps that’s what happened and the missing arm became dinner for someone in the tank.

TWO

One year, late in the season, we took a family trip to Apalachicola, FL for the weekend. A storm had passed through the days before which is always exciting for me because I love comb the beaches after a storm. The wave action brought on shore a ton of shells, sea cucumbers, horseshoe crabs and starfish.  I photographed a lot of them but my favorite was of a starfish. I have since used that one (an edited version) as my branding for CraftyBeachcomber on both the Facebook page and the Etsy store.

I love starfish!! What’s your favorite sea critter?