Let's talk about Harlequin shrimp

[phish guy]

i think i know the answer to my question, but i hope im wrong.

so i have alot of asterina stars and was thinking of getting some harlequins for my tank, BUT i have a very nice, rather large serpent star in my tank. so the question is, will the shrimp eat my serpent star?

[gkaquatic]

if u havn't read this yet it has a lot of good info
http://www.chucksaddiction.com/harlequinshrimp.html

and for all the people complaining about the whole chopping a leg off a chocolate chip star, do u think the harlequin kills the star fish firtst if u give it a whole one.... NO. its alive for days until it finally dies from the shrimp the center part of the star.
*and im not trying to trash talk at all, at least the chocolate chip star seems to have a longer better life by rotating stars for legs then giving it to the shrimp which probably wont eat the entire star before it starts to rot.

[gkaquatic]

the chances of a harlequin eating a serpent star are slim. serpents move to fast for a harlequin and would be much to hard to tangle with to start eating it

[JokerGirl]

I've had mine for about 9 months now.

It destroyed a 3yr old Asterina colony within about a month, so don't expect them to feed off Asterina's for all that long.

Gets fed a CC star every few weeks or so.

Fantastic addition to my tank.

[Pulp Fishin]

Originally posted by phish guy
i think i know the answer to my question, but i hope im wrong.

so i have alot of asterina stars and was thinking of getting some harlequins for my tank, BUT i have a very nice, rather large serpent star in my tank. so the question is, will the shrimp eat my serpent star?

Hey Phish guy glad too see a fimilar face here!

I have 2 bristol stars in my 65 corner with my harlequins and they have been in that tank since I adopted the stars last Oct and they have been able to avoid any har by my Harlequins thus far. They are just too fast and the Harlequins would need a team of shrimp too keep them fliped over.

The longest my Harlequins wnet without food was over 2 weeks nere 3, the Bristol stars went untouched so I must say that, in your case...Vegas is giving your serpent star a 6-1 odds that it will be just fine with a harlequin or two.

[phish guy]

GKaquatic that was a very helpful, in depth article. i thought the shrimp would eat my serpent. but after reading that it makes sense that a large serpent/brittle star would be to quick and intimidating for a harlequin.

thanks everyone.

[gkaquatic]

thanks Phish Guy

[Pulp Fishin]

Sadly today i'm here to report bad news...

Yesterday I came home from work to find one of my harlequin shrimp has passed on. I can tell the diffrence bwteen a molt & a dead shimp so there is no mistakeing this for a molt.

Now I just passed 2 years with him and his mate is just fine. I'd wondering hwo long Harlequin shrimp live for?
I think I rember hearing its about 2-3years so I'm hoping that it was natural caused death. Tank perm are normal
ph 8.0
temp 78
amonia 0
Nitrate 0
nirite undetectable
phosphate is also 0

Last I highly doubt that he died of starvation. I have reacently tryed the freezing starfish arms and feeding them once a week so he would have had a good meal reacently unless 2 theorys might reveal a cause.

#1 does freezing starfish make them less nutricious to the shrimp?
#2 last 2 weeks they were fed a pink marbel star which is not one of their fav meals, is it possible that he declind a meal he didn't enjoy and chose to starve himself waiting for somthing better?

RIP little Harly!

[gkaquatic]

Has anyone who has a harlequin noticed a color loss (blue or purple spotting) over time? the next question would be is anyone feeding Linka stars? and if so what color?

[E.intheC]

that's a bummer pulp.. It could be a number of different things.

Did you notice any temp or salinity swings? I just lost 2 of my favorite shrimp to a temp spike.

[Pulp Fishin]

It looks like it may have been natural. My temp hasn't had any drematic temp flux, and no salinity fluxs that I noticed.
I had noticed that the colour went lighter right before the end.

[E.intheC]

I just saw a bunch for sale at the LFS for $25 each. That was truly very tempting.

[E.intheC]

OK, back to the harlequins. Does anyone keep other shrimp like cleaners or fire shrimp with them?

If you keep chocolate chip stars in your fuge, will they eat pods or other beneficial populations?

[E.intheC]

Has anyone noticed the harlys reacting negatively to fast moving fish?

[kellon16]

will they eat brittle star fish? If you put a couple of brittle starts in your sump or fuge they would produce thousands of little starts i find tons of them just from one and if they made it to your display with your shrimp wouldn't that work?

[E.intheC]

i think they might eat micro brittle stars, although I'm not sure. And that's a good idea adding some to the sump. I know they don't typically eat large brittles because of how large and fast moving the stars are, but I'm not sure about micros.

[Amoore311]

Here's mine. I've had him for a couple months now. He is in a 180 by himself. I haven't had to supplement any chocolate chip stars yet, he is doing fine on my population of Asterinas.

[E.intheC]

wow, that's a very large pic. Very nice looking shrimp you have there. Do you have a pair or just the one?

[clayw]

In december I will be buying my second CadLight tank. the 12 AIO rimless system. I currently have a 22g CAD and love it. When I purchase the 12 it will be a harlequin only tank with 1 mated pair. I'll just be keeping a lot of zoas and rics for the coral. I to already have a small 10g tank set up with a HOB and CF low wattage light, for nothing more than to house a few choco stars. and chop off an arm for each feeding. I think this argument of it being cruel is rubbish. Its called nature. And if you'd rather put more strain on the oceans by killing a whole choco just to feed your shrimp a couple legs, then your the cruel one. Cycling arms is fine and a better way to feed with minimal waste. Come january I will post pics of the harlequin only tank for you guys.
-clay

[Amoore311]

I've got just the single one. I also re sized the picture lol.

[E.intheC]

amoore, that pick looks great! It was just huge! The harley looks like he's just relaxing in his spot, similar to laying on the beach, lol.

nice pic.

[gkaquatic]

*Clayw* totally agree with u. ive posted that once on this forum and im glad to see someone else agrees. good luck with the harlequin only tank i have my "Harley" in a 10g almost all by herself. only a small clown gody and a small skunk clown are with her and they are no bother. hope to get some pics up soon once her defense claws have regrown completely, from the problem i had with her in my large tank.

*TO EVER ONE if u havnt posted pics of your harlequin yet put some up if its not to much trouble. im sure im not the only person that would like to see them.

[gkaquatic]

Originally Posted by E.intheC

i think they might eat micro brittle stars, although I'm not sure. And that's a good idea adding some to the sump. I know they don't typically eat large brittles because of how large and fast moving the stars are, but I'm not sure about micros.

i have micro brittles in with my harlequin and i have never seen her eat one. but they do make a great clean up crew i must say.

[clayw]

gkaquatic. thanks for backing me up as well. I want to see pictures of them to! I cant wait to get my tank set up and going. Ill be using LR and water from an established tank so shouldnt see to much of a cycle, and Ill add them fairly sooner than most people would agree to, but to those naysayers my 22g is thriving and never saw a cycle. what types of coral if any do you have in the 10g gk?
-clay

[gkaquatic]

just some starpolyps and red mushrooms other than that two large feather dusters and a hang on container with a grape culirpa in it and thats it. keep it simple. the tank almost runs its self.