Has anyone ever has a Harlequin Shrimp eat a Pom Pom Crab?

[comprisedpuma]

Haven't seen my Pom Pom for over a month, same time I added a Harlequin and CC Star to my tank. Usually I could spot him at night "playing" on the mushroom coral, but nothing since I added a Harlequin.

I don't see any exoskele floating around and I don't think molting would take this long anyway.

Is my little guy gone?

[MondoBongo]

i would suspect the chocolate chip star ate him. they will devour anything they can get their tube feet on.

[splix]

Harlequins will wreck inverts. Mine took out my emerald when I added the harlequin 8 months after the crab.

[nereefpat]

It was my understanding that harlequin shrimp only ate the tube feet of starfish.

Otherwise, they would be easier to keep.

[M.R Cowfish]

Would not worry yet . Have had a Pom Pom crab that I had not seen for a year , so figured it was gone . Removed a rock to pluck some algae off it and the Pom Pom ended up on my floor I seen him put him back in the tank . SO they are extremely good hiders . My experience with Harlequins is they are pretty tame unless near the home . I have some small inverts like bumble bee shrimp that eat from the starfish with the harlequin shrimp . Dont give up hope yet

[comprisedpuma]

As fate would have it, I spotted him last night on my mushroom again. I suspect maybe he was molting so was in extra hiding mode.

Little guy is usually not so reclusive, as he would normally be spotted easily at night.

Now I feel bad for thinking the harley got him.. maybe I should give her an extra CC to hide this guilt lol

[deputydog95]

I had a harlequin to get rid of an asterina explosion in my tank. Very cool shrimp. However, difficult to keep. They pretty much only eat starfish. I wish had found a way to catch him and bring him back to the LFS as I eventually lost him by not being able to provide and adequate supply of starfish. Cheap sand sifters can be hard to come and these shrimp are very aggressive eaters. They don't take a bit and keep moving. They immediately flip the whole starfish over, kill it, and munch on it for a couple days.

I would take it back if you can catch it... Unless you have a source where you can get a couple hundred asterina a month to drop in the tank so it can chase them down.

[BigBlueTang]

What some people do is they keep a couple of chocolate chip starfish in their sump and break off a leg every week or so for the harlequin shrimp to eat. Cute critters.


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[comprisedpuma]

Thanks, I'm not terribly concerned with feeding the harley. The first CC lasted her for almost 3 weeks before she started going to town on asterinas.

I'll probably just get a CC for her every month and then sprinkle in asterinas as needed between that. Might go for the sump-leg method if I find my food bills skyrocketing :)