View Full Version : Harley shrimp pair feeding questions
Gotcha!
06/04/2011, 07:25 AM
Ok, today I am getting a pair of Harley shrimp to help eliminate the huge population of probably 1000+ Asterina type sea stars which destroyed my pipe organ coral. I have a few questions many of you experienced with Harley shrimp may be able to help me with.
1) I have a bristle star and a serpent star in my 90 gallon reef. Will they be fast food for the shrimp or will they stay eating the Asterina till they are sorta gone before I need to add sea stars for their food requirements.
2) With a pair of Harleys how fast will they eat a sea star on average. By this I mean once I start providing a sea star how often will I need to have another sea star ready for the shrimp. Also what is the best type of sea star to get or does it not matter?
3) would it be a good idea to place 2 sea stars in the tank so it may have a chance to regenerate from the shrimps feeding or is that a waste of time and probably would cause water issues. I am new with these shrimp so I am unfamiliar with the best way to try and make it a natural environment for them and I mainly am getting them to eliminate the huge population/outbreak of Asterina that has developed.
Thanks for any feedback you all may offer. I do not want these little guys to starve once I get them into the tank.
Gotcha!
06/05/2011, 11:27 AM
Well, another thing happened. I found one of my blue legged hermit crabs attacking one of the harley shrimp this morning. Anyone know if there is a compatability issue here. Looks like I may never get rid of my stars if I loose both the harleys I just put in?
quicktater
06/05/2011, 11:40 AM
I have dealt with the same problem that you have. I purchased a pair of Harlequin shrimp about a year ago for one of my tanks. I was trying to manually extract at least 50 Asterinas stars every day and I never seemed to get a head of them. After I put the small pair into the tank I didn't even see them for 2 to 3 weeks. They eventually grew more bold and are now out regularly even in the day time. They have been a huge success! They have not killed all of them but boy what a difference. When I look at the tank in the morning right after the lights come on there may be 2 or 3 on the front glass, not 50 to 100. about once a month I'll give them a chocolate chip star and they polish it off in less than a week.
Gotcha!
06/05/2011, 11:48 AM
The Blue legged hermit had it trapped in a hole/small indent in the sandbed and liverock. I think this smaller harley shrimp may have lost a claw/arm. It may be a sad day for me since I do not want to loose one of these lovely looking shrimp. I will have to keep an eye on it today and see if I can tell if it lost one of its claws/sigh. The bigger one I have not seen yet this morning lol yet I have 1000+ stars at least and they are so overpopulated now and have destroyed my huge pipe organ coral. I will hate to have to get another one since these were paired and this one was the smaller one. Guess I will have to wait and watch.
Thanks for the reply.
Update: The same hermit crab just took its other arm/claw off. I may have to look for a different solution to my issue since it looks like the Blue Legged Hermit crabs are not compatable with the Harley shrimp. Sad day for me.
greech
06/05/2011, 12:18 PM
Throw the BL hermit(s) in your sump. Sorry to hear about the harley.
Interested to know more about the success with these and astrerins as well.
Gotcha!
06/05/2011, 12:43 PM
I put the small Harley in a side container yet I do not think it is going to make it more then a couple hours. I have 3 or 4 blue legged hermit crabs and scarlets, etc. in the reef so there is no way I will be able to control this. I did see the larger one this morning and he (I am assuming the larger one in the pair is the male) was doing great and whiping his large claws over his face for a while till the lights came on and he darted back into the rock work. The small one I do not think will make it more then a few hours yet I have it isolated. Either the small one did not ship well and was not doing good this morning for the hermit to attack it like that or I will maybe loose the bigger one if they are not compatable. I guess time will tell. I hate it when something dies especially right after introduction. I just hope the bigger one will do well without the other. There are thousands of stars I need to get under control and this is the only way from the research I have done that seems to have a chance of getting the job done. I am tired of seeing the population of stars blanketing more and more of my glass night and day.
Gotcha!
06/07/2011, 08:23 AM
Lost the smaller Harley shrimp yesterday morning. I take it the smaller one was the male of the pair. The larger one, about 2x the size of the smaller one seems to be doing good and it was playing with a small shell last night (probably a small Asterina in it). I am sure it is lonely now that it has lost her mate.
My 90 gallon has well over 1000 of these Asterina's in it. My question is do you think just having 1 harley shrimp will put a dent in the Asterina population or should I try and get another small male to add and hope they pair up?
Anyone have ideas on this that have been through what I am going through with this huge Asterina population problem?
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