Disarmed starfish - Asexual reproduction?

S

SeaDude

[I was aghast to find a lone arm of my sand sifting starfish laying on the sand without the rest of the starfish attached. Sure enough, Mr 4-arms was nearby and missing an entire arm, but seemed no worse for it.

I can't think of who else in the tank could have ripped his arm off. Did the starfish pull his own arm off as a means of asexual reproduction?

Will the severed arm really grow into another starfish? If so, is there anything I can do to encourage this - like fend off the scavengers?]
 
[I know one time we had a rock avalanche in my tank and accidentally trapped one of the arms of our brittle star when setting the rocks back up. He detached himself from the arm and has totally grown a new one. However, the detached arm did NOT produce a new brittle starfish. So my guess would be that the lone arm will not produce a new starfish.]
 
[I think it depends on whether or not part of the center piece is connected to the severed arm. I beleive that a severed arm without any of the center will never produce another starfish. I don't know how much of the center part is required(I would guess around 20%) but I'm pretty sure that it must have some to have any chance to be successful in generating a new starfish.]
 
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