Harlequin Shrimp reef safe?
- Thread starter ninjamini
- Start date
mudplayerx
Active Member
Not only that, they only eat the tube feet of sea stars, making owning one of these shrimp both expensive and impractical.
dfreeman64
Member
I saw teo of them go after a choclate chip in a lfs and yes they will let it regrow to be fed on again according to the owner of the store and no I was not looking to buy so was not a sales pitch to me. my .02
Dewayne
Dewayne
whitey_028
Member
I had one for almost a year and a half...Finally died last week *sniffle sniffle* Chocholate chip starfish is what mine liked the most and every 1 to 3 weeks I had to buy a 6 dollar starfish,they will eat any starfish and wont kill it untill it gets to the mough of the starfish and they will eat all of the starfish, mine kept the starfish alive while it was eating so i never had a nitrate problem,He was the most enjoyable shrimp in the tank as they are especially beautiful and dont bother anything but starfish, I did find him eating on my sand sifting starfish a few times but i would move the sand sifter to another part of the tank where it would be paralyzed for a few hours or days from the harlequin but i didnt die, If he wasnt fed well he would always go after the sand sifter if he could find it. I would highly recommend one if you have the patience of having to go to the fish store everythime he finished a starfish. He will actually feed the starfish to keep it alive while he was eating it as he wouldnt eat it if it was dead. Hope this helps and i really miss mine and am thinking of getting a matching pair of them for my aquapod as they mate for life. To finally answer your question they are very reef safe as long as you dont have any wrasses or anything that will them. He never even looked at any of the coral in my tank and was happy for a long time there...
ninjamini
Active Member
Originally Posted by whitey_028
I had one for almost a year and a half...Finally died last week *sniffle sniffle* Chocholate chip starfish is what mine liked the most and every 1 to 3 weeks I had to buy a 6 dollar starfish,they will eat any starfish and wont kill it untill it gets to the mough of the starfish and they will eat all of the starfish, mine kept the starfish alive while it was eating so i never had a nitrate problem,He was the most enjoyable shrimp in the tank as they are especially beautiful and dont bother anything but starfish, I did find him eating on my sand sifting starfish a few times but i would move the sand sifter to another part of the tank where it would be paralyzed for a few hours or days from the harlequin but i didnt die, If he wasnt fed well he would always go after the sand sifter if he could find it. I would highly recommend one if you have the patience of having to go to the fish store everythime he finished a starfish. He will actually feed the starfish to keep it alive while he was eating it as he wouldnt eat it if it was dead. Hope this helps and i really miss mine and am thinking of getting a matching pair of them for my aquapod as they mate for life. To finally answer your question they are very reef safe as long as you dont have any wrasses or anything that will them. He never even looked at any of the coral in my tank and was happy for a long time there...
Does it just keep it pined there or does it let the star walk around? Is it gory?
I had one for almost a year and a half...Finally died last week *sniffle sniffle* Chocholate chip starfish is what mine liked the most and every 1 to 3 weeks I had to buy a 6 dollar starfish,they will eat any starfish and wont kill it untill it gets to the mough of the starfish and they will eat all of the starfish, mine kept the starfish alive while it was eating so i never had a nitrate problem,He was the most enjoyable shrimp in the tank as they are especially beautiful and dont bother anything but starfish, I did find him eating on my sand sifting starfish a few times but i would move the sand sifter to another part of the tank where it would be paralyzed for a few hours or days from the harlequin but i didnt die, If he wasnt fed well he would always go after the sand sifter if he could find it. I would highly recommend one if you have the patience of having to go to the fish store everythime he finished a starfish. He will actually feed the starfish to keep it alive while he was eating it as he wouldnt eat it if it was dead. Hope this helps and i really miss mine and am thinking of getting a matching pair of them for my aquapod as they mate for life. To finally answer your question they are very reef safe as long as you dont have any wrasses or anything that will them. He never even looked at any of the coral in my tank and was happy for a long time there...
Does it just keep it pined there or does it let the star walk around? Is it gory?
whitey_028
Member
Mine would sting it and kinda paralyze it and it wasnt gory at all as the starfish stayed alive forawhile,he would just nibble all the legs off until he got to the center like a tootsiepop. How many licks does it take to get to the center of the tootsiepop? 1,2,crunch...Or in his case it was a 1,2,3,4,5,crunch.
whitey_028
Member
Originally Posted by ninjamini
Do they eat brittle stars?
the big ones maybe never had one in my tank but the little ones that come out at night he never touched.
Do they eat brittle stars?
the big ones maybe never had one in my tank but the little ones that come out at night he never touched.
xdave
Active Member
Mine looked like they sorta tickled it into flipping over. They'd get on top each taking a leg, and touch the feet at the tip of a leg or point. the star would start to curl up then they would poke at the feet a little farther up. Eventually they get the star to flip compltely over. Sometimes it would take days to finish. I worked at a distributor and got stars free if they had any parts missing. I weened mine to the point that every other meal wasn't a starfish. I gave the fish from the grocery store. It was frozen in strips. I think it was smelt. I'd give them a piece about twice as big as the 2 of them ( they eat a whole starfish till it's gone so...) they appeared to thrive on it because they'd always shed that night. Theres also the fact that almost every month she'd have eggs on her tail, what happened to them I dont know.
They also have a wierd sign language thing. When they came in at work I say there were actually a pair so I put them in the reef DT. Nothing in it but rock and coral. then my goofy boss who didnt know, throws a Miniatus Grouper in there cause he was too mean. I didnt barely had time to yell. the fish went right for them ( you saw that part comin) but they just held up their claws and did this ship to shore signal flag lookin moves and the Grouper freaked out. He turned white and hid behind a rock! Any of you seen them do this wierd signalling thing?
They also have a wierd sign language thing. When they came in at work I say there were actually a pair so I put them in the reef DT. Nothing in it but rock and coral. then my goofy boss who didnt know, throws a Miniatus Grouper in there cause he was too mean. I didnt barely had time to yell. the fish went right for them ( you saw that part comin) but they just held up their claws and did this ship to shore signal flag lookin moves and the Grouper freaked out. He turned white and hid behind a rock! Any of you seen them do this wierd signalling thing?
whitey_028
Member
Yes i have have seen them do this, my coral banded went after him in defense because the harlequin had gone into his territory not knowing and the coral banded moved out of his way pretty quickly...
