How often feed a Harlequin Shrimp?

[Spar]

I just picked up 2 Harlequin Shrimp that will have a never ending buffet of astrea stars once in my DT, but they are spending 3 months in time-out (QT) with some new coral, etc, in the meantime.

While in QT, I need to toss in some stars for them. How often and how many should I put in? Should I just dump a whole bunch in there and let them pick away over time?

[vette.tech]

Well I can't speak for a qt but in my DT I know it's time to feed when I see him out for two or three days in a row doing karate at the glass or on the rocks

[snorvich]

A starfish leg about once a week. You can raise starfish in the sump (at least for a while) because believe it or not, they will eventually exhaust the asterinas.

[Spar]

A starfish leg about once a week. You can raise starfish in the sump (at least for a while) because believe it or not, they will eventually exhaust the asterinas.

People keep telling me that the asterinas will be exhausted, but I just don't see how in my tank... I can't wait to see the wreckage! I have thousands in there, I'd figure they would reproduce faster than could be eaten.

Good idea on raising stars in the sump; i was about to add some CUC to my sump anyway. What kind of star works best?

[vette.tech]

Oh they will be,. I was keeping CC stars in my sump for a while an would hack a leg off in the hopes that it would eventually grow back and if have free food, not the case as it takes a LONG time to regenerate appendages. And recently they all kept getting stuck to the skimmer inlet which would kill that limb and get starfish debris in my skimmer, gonna have to think of a new way to house them

[snorvich]

It takes more than one starfish to feed them, as it is correct that legs grow back slowly. However, one (not a pair) cleaned out my smaller tank of asterinas (240 gallons) in about 5 months and there were a lot of them. I used chocolate chip starfish.

[mfinn]

I also had a ton of asterinas in my 240 and I put in 1 harlequin in the tank and within 4-5 months it's very hard to see any.
In fact the other day it was up in the front of the tank waving at me. I assumed it was hungry, so I dug around in my sump and found 5-6 and dropped them in when the shrimp was. He grabbed one and disappeared behind a rock.