Starfish commonly reproduce by free-spawning: releasing their gametes into the water where they hopefully are fertilized by gametes from the opposite sex. To increase their chances of fertilization, starfish probably gather in groups when they are ready to spawn, use environmental signals to coordinate timing (day length to indicate the correct time of the year, dawn or dusk to indicate the correct time of day), and may use chemical signals to indicate their readiness to each other.
Fertilized eggs grow into bipinnaria and later into brachiolaria larvae, which either grow using a yolk or by catching and eating other plankton. In either case, they live as plankton, suspended in the water and swimming by using beating cilia. The larvae are bilaterally symmetric — unlike adults, they have a distinct left and right side. Eventually, they undergo a complete metamorphosis, settle to the bottom, and grow into adults.
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Bipinnaria larvae of a starfish.
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Brachiolaria larvae of a
starfish.
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Some species of starfish brood their young: the males spawn gametes which fertilize eggs held by the females. The females may hold the eggs on their surface, in the pyloric stomach (as in Leptasterias tenera), or even attach them to the ground (as in Asterina gibbosa). Brooding is especially common in polar and deep-sea species, environments less favorable for larvae.
Male and female starfish are not distinguishable from the outside; you need to see the gonads or be lucky enough to catch them spawning. The gonads are located in each arm, and release gametes through gonoducts located on the central body between the arms.
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Last updated May 10, 2000.
