Harlequin Shrimp - anyone with experience.

[badfish]

Well i found a new pet store around an hour away from my house, and my fiance came along for the ride. She really liked the Harlequin Shrimp, but i dont know about feeding them. I know they eat starfish, but that can be pretty pricey to feed them. How often do you feed them? what kind of starfish do they eat? From what the guy told me, they can eat Chocolate chip starfish, thats like ten bucks per feeding, not to mention im in the transition to reef, which i know a CC can go to town on. I gotta admit, they are really cool looking. Would they get along with everything in my tank? (see sig.). Any other thoughts or experiences on them will be appreciated.

Thanks,

- Jeff

 

[SALTYDAWGY]

a couple of years ago I was thinking about trying one. I did all the research and ended up not. I figured that I could by a star fish every month and segment it into about 20 or so pieces then freeze the parts after adding some selcon for vitamins.

 

[elke]

i had one they wil eat choclate chip stars and it is the easiest and cheapest way to go but they really like serpent stars but that shrimp is really temperate and water has to be really good or poof its gone personaly in my opoin note worth the money to get or to feed it
but to each is their own

 

[ZoozFishMaster]

From my experience, Harlequin stars will not eat serpant stars. They will eat chocolate chip stars, but really prefer linckia stars (linckias are really expensive though!). I've heard of some people allowing the shrimp to munch off a leg or two and then pulling the starfish out, allowing it to regenerate its lost limbs. If this worked and you have multiple stars to rotate, i don't think it would be terribly costly. The the shrimp eat rather slow (over a week or two for one starfish). HTH

 

[kribbz]

you could talk to michealprater about this one. i know he had a mated pair a few years ago

 

[Jason]

they are easy to keep. the guy at my LFS has had a pair of them forever. all you do is toss a starfish over in the tank every once in a while and they are happy. I am guessing they are just as hard to keep ad other shrimp, they just have a highly specialized diet.

They are totally awesome to watch feed too BTW........... those little guys are really vicious!

I'd say go for it if you are willing to pony up the cash for there food!

I would get some but the wife unit says "no death in my house"

 

[gilraen]

I've read they are difficult to keep. Now I know why... 8O Gosh, I love my chocolate chip star, I would hate to see it go into a shrimp's mouth...

 

[badfish]

Yeah, i think im gonna wait a while, the guy at my LFS said he was trying to set up something where he can get starfish for cheaper to feed them, i dont know how thats gonna work out but well see. Ten bucks per feeding is expensive, plus would one finish a whole CC star?" How often would you feed. And how fast do they kill, i do have a semi reef and dont want the star eating my corals. I do feel bad feeding them a perfeclty healthy star.

 

[Jason]

badfish,

they come out and look for food when they are hungry. you won't really see them any other time unless they post up somewhere you can.........

Every time I have ever seen the ones the guy who runs my LFS has eat it's pretty fast. they are the only things in a 55 gallon breeder tank (along with the hermits and snails he sells). pretty much as soon as you drop the star in there they jump it, flip it over and eat it from the outside in. It takes a couple of days for the two he has to finish one off.

He feeds them once a week sometimes more.

You really shouldn't feel bad about feeding them a perfectly healthy starfish..... that's what they eat. The hamburger you ate last night used to be a perfectly healthy cow

HTH....

again I say harlequin shrimp rock!!!!!