harlequin shrimp

[the j.o.p.]

how long does it take a harlequin to eat a star fish? do they eat the feet off of any star or just certain ones?
i want to get a mated pair if it will not cost me $25.00 a month to feed them. :help: :help: :help: :help:

 

[aw2x3]

It's not how often they eat them...it's how you have to feed them.
Harlequin Shrimp dont eat the whole star...they just eat the legs off of them.
Ideally, you need a separate tank set up, holding nothing but 5 - 6 feeder starfish.
Toss one into the Harlequin tank and wait for them to eat one or two legs off. Then, switch the star out with another. As you switch them out, they will regrow their legs.

 

[madman33]

thye eat any starfish but most commonly fed is the chocolate chip star

 

[mygatt]

thats an evil shrimp man - it just sounds bad, picking the legs off of those poor starfish, lol

 

[the j.o.p.]

thanks, thats what i was thinking. i have a 10 gal set up for feeder snails for my mantis. i could just keep the stars in there.

 

[ophiura]

Please do as advised and do not feed Linckia sp. stars.

 

[the j.o.p.]

why not?

 

[ophiura]

Because chocolate chips or asterina stars are effectively renewable resources. Linckia stars already have huge demands on them, a poor survival rate, etc. If this is not a large tank, the last thing you want is a dying star in your tank. At the very least, freeze the stars and hope your shrimp will eat a frozen piece. Asterina and chocolate chip stars are more "ecologically sound" ways of keeping these shrimp.

 

[the j.o.p.]

cool how big do asterina stars get? i've only seen them like 3mm wide.

 

[ophiura]

They are generally smaller than a nickel.

 

[the j.o.p.]

i would need hundreds to feed a harlequin!!

 

[ophiura]

They are quite easy to get, and you can divide them yourself

 

[the j.o.p.]

i guess the hunt for feeder stars begins. i will se if i can sustain a quality food supply before i get the shrimp.

 

[xdave]

I eventually got mine to only eat starfish 1 out of 4 feedings, the rest of the time they ate silversides. I fed them the kind of starfish you see dried at craft stores. They're about 3" and a plain sandy brown color.

 

[the j.o.p.]

so they will eat other things. interesting!!

 

[madman33]

Originally Posted by The J.O.P.
so they will eat other things. interesting!!
im not sure i would count on that though...they are known for being strictly starfish eaters

 

[xdave]

At one point we were having trouble getting healthy starfish in. (I worked at a very large distribution center, we usually ordered chocolate chips 1000 at a time every month) They hadn't had a starfish in about a week so I put in a silverside and they hopped right on it. I fed them just silversides and pieces of whatever fish I was going to make for dinner for 3 months. I always soaked the pieces in invert supplements first. They continued to molt. Eggs appeared on the female every month but then just disappeared, no sign of larvae or anything.
Don't worry about the extra expense of buying a mated pair, learn the difference and buy them separately, in a situation with no competition they usually take to the available partner right away.
I will find a pic showing the sexual differences.

 

[xdave]

This is a female, the leg the arrow is pointing to is blue, on a male it would be transparent.

 

[the j.o.p.]

nice! is that the second leg?

 

[xdave]

Yes. Also, the female will be larger and have more blue in the spots, the male smaller and have more pink in the spots.