ANSWERS: 3
  • It depends on the muscle/clam or whatever it is trying to eat more than the strength of the starfish. The starfish that are able to open shellfish basically just squeezes in between a small opening and slowly waits until the clam's adductor muscle wears out. It can take hours, but it is well worth it for a good meal. There are other starfish that can actually extend their stomachs outside of their own body and inside the shell and digest the muscle, then slurp their stomach back our of the shell and into their own body again.
  • OK, if they extend their stomachs into the prey, how long does the whole process take, including digestion? Thanks.
  • About twenty minutes or a little more: "the starfish can effect the opening in from fifteen to twenty minutes" (for Venus clams) "the starfish has already completed the work of opening; and has, indeed, already digested the greater part of its victim" Source: http://sabella.mba.ac.uk/165/01/How_do_starfishes_open_oysters.pdf

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