harlequin shrimp questions

[scottallert]

I know theres a thread but i have specific questions
so i want a pair,
how big do they get?
how often do i need to feed them?
what size meal?
and instead of purchasing a bunch of stars can i buy one chop it up then freeze it for later?
last one how do i know if its a boy or girl?
thanks.

[philter4]

They get between 2 and maybe 2 1/2 inches, with females being a little bigger.

I give mine stars all of the time so they can eat when they want, but I have seen many posts of people who feed only every few weeks and have kept them for long periods and have no health issues. I base my feeding schedule on the fact that I have never seen one in the ocean without a star. This could be because they always have one available, or they are harder for me to find without the star and I just don't ever find them when they are not feeding, I'm not sure.

I feed a single star to a pair and they eat it in 3 to 7 days depending on it's size.

You could cut legs up and feed them, but they do not (at least any I've kept) eat dead stars, so frozen probably wouldn't work. Mine abandon the stars as soon as they die, and then I remove it, though most of the time they eat it down to nothing.

Males and females have different color patterns under the body, I don't have a photo, but it is easy to tell so if you look just get two that have different color patterns on the finnetts under the body and you'll have a pr, plus you can look up the difference online and see photos and see for yourself.

[Tennyson]

They get to around 2 inches, but females are usually larger than males.

They can last about a month without feeding, but it's best to keep them fed at all times for best fed. (I feed mine no later than 2 weeks after it's finished a starfish)

I like to feed my harlequin a whole starfish, it eats the whole thing in a week. The starfish' I feed are around 2.5-3 inches across. But smaller is fine.

You can feed individual legs of the star to the harlequin and save the rest for later. But IMO it's more fun to watch it 'paralyze' the starfish with it's pointy apendages and slowly eating it alive.
Some people use this technique: Buy 4-5 starfish and keep them in a seperate tank/fuge. When feeding time comes, chop an arm off of one of the stars and feed it. Rotate each time, in which, the starfish will regenerate their arms slowly to be cut off later.

Female's pleopeds have purple coloration, while male's pleopeds have no/clear/yellow colored pleopeds-their little swimmerlets on their bottom.
Females are also larger like I said.

[Tennyson]

aw man, philter4, you JUST beat me to it. lol

[scottallert]

hey thanks for the info
philter4 do you see these off the coaste of florida?

[charlesr1958]

The harlequins are found in hawaii and throughout the indo-pacific.

The Harlequin Shrimp (http://www.chucksaddiction.com/harlequinshrimp.html)

Chuck

[philter4]

I have family in HI and I go at least twice a year, I have dove all over the world during the 90's, but no, as stated earlier they are pacific, not found in FL.

[Koshmar]

One of the keepers at the aquarium I volunteer at said that you can use iodine to fuse the starfish's wound up after you cut the arm off and it will regenerate faster.