Harlequin shrimp feeding question

[Tennyson]

So ive had my harlequin for a little more than a month, and shes been doing great. i've fed her an arm of a starfish, and a whole starfish, today she just finished eating the whole starfish i fed her 3 weeks ago. how long will she last before i have to feed her again?

[charlesr1958]

Three weeks is about as long as I would go between feedings.

Chuck

[Tennyson]

ok thanks.
later on, when i get enough money, im thinking about getting another one. i have a female right now, if i got a male, would they pair up? or could there be trouble. in other words, will they only be compatible if bought as a mated pair?

[KellyPug]

curious, how hard is it it chop off a leg of a starfish?
and when you get a whole starfish for your harlequin, do you still acclimate it to your tank water?

thanks!

[Tennyson]

chopping off the arm of a chocolate chip star is actually alot harder than what it would seem like.
They are much harder than what you'd expect them to be! first I thought a plastic knife would cut through it, thinking it would be soft, I was completely wrong.
But I ended up using my dad's giant blade to cut it off. and it makes me feel really bad that I have to put so much pressure onto the knife to cut the star, thinking of how much it hurts the star to be crushed against the table where i cut it. but its back to normal in like 20 minutes.

And I don't acclimate my stars when I put them into the tank, they're ok with it, until they're attacked and eated :)

[snorvich]

They don't really feel it. Get a few chocolate chips for your sump and rotate them. Works great.

[chrisstie]

I wonder if you get one that will eat asterinas (the little guys all over) how many you need growing in your tank for them to survive on?

[snorvich]

I did it. Requires LOTS. When they run out you can trade them back for feed them starfish legs.

[Tennyson]

I think theres an article about feeding asterina's to harlequins. ill look for it. I'd also like to try that and save $ that i'd spend on a chocolate chip star. does anyone know where i can find them to buy or anything? cause they aren't in my live rock.

[Tennyson]

while i was looking for the article, I did find a site with like 50 videos of harlequin shrimps, each video is like on a certain part of the shrimp like the antennae, pinchers ect. and there are alot of videos on how they feed on stars, and how they attack them and stuff. check it out, i never knew someone would take so many videos of one shrimp.

http://www.oceanfootage.com/stockfootage/Harlequin_Shrimp.

[KellyPug]

Neat videos! I find it interesting that the harlequin shrimp is eating the starfish even without flipping it over. As long as a part of the starfish isn't attached to the rock, the harlequin is eating away. Sadistic little guy ;)

Do you guys know if the starfish gets totally eaten or does the shrimp leave pieces that it doesn't want to eat? Thinking about getting a shrimp since I'm seeing a growth in my asterina population but not sure how much of a hassle it'd be to feed the little guy choco chip starfish later on.

[sdietz2469]

well guys i have 120 that had literally millions of astreas in it, and i thought, heck he will never be able to eat all of those, they will reproduce way to fast for himm to keep up, well 2 months later, my harleqin is almost tripple size, and i cant find any astreas in my tank... so i am a little surprised at how fast he ate them... now i am going to trade him to my buddy for his linka, and is going to let him eat away in his tank......
shane

[fishome25]

can you feed them frozen starfish?

[charlesr1958]

Once thawed out, yes.

Chuck

[Tennyson]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13006597#post13006597 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by KellyPug
Neat videos! I find it interesting that the harlequin shrimp is eating the starfish even without flipping it over. As long as a part of the starfish isn't attached to the rock, the harlequin is eating away. Sadistic little guy ;)

Do you guys know if the starfish gets totally eaten or does the shrimp leave pieces that it doesn't want to eat? Thinking about getting a shrimp since I'm seeing a growth in my asterina population but not sure how much of a hassle it'd be to feed the little guy choco chip starfish later on.

Umm, I do kind of notice that in the area where my harley eats it's starfish, there are like these white pebbles everywhere. I think they are the remains of the starfish since they're only there. My harlequin doesnt eat them. so they leave some leftovers.

[R_Hudson]

i have a serious asterina problem in my 30gal. it really didnt bother me until this morning when i got up and half of my tubbs blues zoas were eaten...i have returned with a harlequin from LFS wanted one for a while the owner of the store whom i know and trust told me that once my asterinas are gone should take a couple weeks i have around 75 or so, that i can just drop a choc. chip star in the tank once a month and that will suffice. he has had 2 in the store since march and he feeds both 1 star every month. and i figure for 8 bucks i can afford that..

[CraigSlice]

are these shrimp completely reef safe (unless ur a star)? This is the first time ive heard of them, and if they are, im going to start researching them, and maybe down the road get one. Are they fine with other shrimp and what not?

[Tennyson]

YES!!! I finally got money! I can buy stuff now (cuz before I owed my parents a ton of $$$) I want to buy a mate for my harlequin. Mine's a female, If I got a male, would they pair up? Or would that not work out?
A pair would look beyond awesome :D

And how big do harlequin's get? Mine's been eating tons of starfish that I feed one after another, and i've noticed its getting a stronger appetite, and its size has increased alot in a month. Its about around 2 to 2.25 inches now.

[R_Hudson]

I got my harlequin on sat. and so far I can't tell that she is touching any of my asterina stars plus she stays hidden behind or under the rockwork...is this because she is still adapting or is something wrong I would hate to kill this beautiful expensive creature...should I get a star and stick in there or just wait and see what happens any advice

[rob1991]

why not instead of feeding a whole star fish once a month or once evry 3 weeks, do this.

get 4 or 5 chocolate chip stars so your looking at spending 32 to 40 bucks in one shot, put them into the sump, and once a week chop off a leg for them to eat. so in a month 4 of the stars will be missing a leg. one will be whole, then once ll are missing one leg go back to the first and chop a different leg off, in theory the legs should grow back by the time its gone hopefulyl, but idk i am no expert on this.

[Tennyson]

I've tried chopping off a leg with one star. It grows back, but very slowly, so 4 or 5 would work too. But I just like to drop a whole one in there and watch my harlequin kill and eat it, much more interesting and fun to watch. :D

[buttons buster]

can a mated pair live in an 8 gallon tank?

[nate82]

don't feed the whole starfish waste of money i'm getting a pair thursday and i'm gonna get 3 choco chips and rotate them by cutting a leg off every 2 weeks also switch that up by dropping it in for a day or two and taking him out to recover that way never kill a star thus saving so much $$

[nate82]

idk about keeping a pair in an 8gallon not because they couldn't live but they are messy eaters... might mess up your chemistry

[Danieltank]

I have a Sand Sifting Sea Star, which is really helping me keeping my sand nice and white. Will it get eaten if I add a couple of Harlequin shrimps? I'm guessing yes...

[Tennyson]

Yeah I think so. I think the sand sifting stars are on the list of possible foods to feed them.

[KellyPug]

I finally got myself a harlequin a couple weeks ago. It has eaten pretty much all of my asterina stars. How big of a chocochip starfish did you give your shrimp? Mine's about 1-1.25" and the chocochip starfish I see at the local stores are around 4" long. Think my shrimp will be able to handle it? I dunno if I can bring myself to chop off a starfish's leg - I hear it's hard too even if I had the guts.

[Tennyson]

Haha yeah, they have arms of steel.

Umm, my harlequin can eat stars of any size. It's biggest chocolate star was 4.25 inches longish, it took a really long time for it to eat it though.