It's not a snowflake, it's the cockroach of the ocean — and researchers fear it

CROWN-OF-THORNS STARFISH 'COCKROACH OF THE OCEAN' AND MUCH MORE RESILIENT THAN PREVIOUSLY THOUGHT By Melissa Martin * ABC Coffs Coast * Topic:Great Barrier Reef Mon 20 Jul

2020Monday 20 July 2020Mon 20 Jul 2020 at 9:01pm It's hard to comprehend the destruction this ethereal creature could do in its lifetime — a juvenile crown-of-thorns starfish, raised in

a lab where researchers have discovered worrying new findings about its progression into adulthood. KEY POINTS: * Juvenile crown-of-thorns starfish will eat a range of foods to survive *

The trait makes them much more resilient than researchers first thought * Researchers hope to find the trigger for juveniles to move from algae to coral Research published today from the

University of Sydney and Southern Cross University's National Marine Science Centre in Coffs Harbour has found the crown-of-thorns starfish will eat a much more varied diet as juveniles

than previously thought, making them worryingly resilient. > "We were shocked about all the different types of food that these > juveniles can eat," report author Dr

Benjamin Mos said. As juveniles the crown-of-thorns starfish are vegetarian, favouring a particular type of algae. But the study found they they would eat much more in order to survive.

"We initially thought that they only ate crustose coralline algae but we found that they can also eat biofilm, which is a mixture of diatoms, bacteria, and other microorganisms that

grow pretty much everywhere in the ocean," Dr Mos said. The findings offer a significant change in thought on the life cycle of the crown-of-thorns starfish, and raises the spectre of

it being a much more dangerous predator. > "Juvenile crown-of-thorns starfish appear to be the cockroach of the > ocean — highly resilient and able to survive for months on food

> that we initially thought they would not eat," Dr Mos said. The surprising findings followed research earlier this year that showed baby starfish can survive on algae for up to six

and a half years instead of switching to a coral diet at four months of age — the point at which they can cause devastation to coral reefs. "This could be a problem in that it might

allow numbers of these juveniles to build up over a number of years and then move out in one mass onto the reef and cause an outbreak," Dr Mos said. He said future research will now

look at what triggers the change from the juvenile, herbivorous stage to when the starfish begin feeding on coral. > "If we can figure out what causes these juveniles to switch from

> feeding on algae to feeding on coral we may be able to come up with > something that will prevent that trigger from happening," he said. Posted Mon 20 Jul 2020 at 9:01pmMonday

20 Jul 2020 at 9:01pmMon 20 Jul 2020 at 9:01pm, updated Mon 20 Jul 2020 at 10:04pmMonday 20 Jul 2020 at 10:04pmMon 20 Jul 2020 at 10:04pm Share options * Copy link * Facebook * X (formerly 

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