Harlequin Shrimp ()

[HarlequinMarine]

Hoping if anyone can shed some light on these little guys. I'm in Australia and planning to do a research project on them. Looking at their colouring (without giving too much away). I was hoping to find out any information that might help me in cultivating them.

If anyone knows of anything or anyone that can help me gain some information, i would be grateful.

Cheers
Harlequin Marine

[JHemdal]

I've been seeing large numbers of these shrimp moving through the wholesalers in the US - to bad, b/c I don't see people buying enough starfish to feed them.
Here is a link to a report from over ten years ago of Hymenocera picta being raised through the juvenile stage:

http://www.breedersregistry.org/database/HYMPIC01.htm

It looks like they are pretty easy to work with, as far as shrimps go. The killer for the whole deal is the one line in the report that says the juveniles began feeding on Linckia starfish soon after metamorphosis....the hope had always been that captive raised harlequin shrimp would learn to feed on alternative foods. I've heard that this hasn't been the case at all.

Jay Hemdal

p.s. - here is a section on breeding shrimp from my book, "Aquarium Fish Breeding"

Shrimp -
Various species of cleaner shrimp of the genus Lysmata and the boxer shrimp, Stenopus will often produce eggs in captivity. These animals are hermaphroditic, so any two shrimp are capable of producing fertilized eggs. The greenish egg mass is kept under the tail of one of the shrimp. After about 14 days, the eggs hatch and the tiny larva float around the aquarium. With care, the larva can be dipped out and transferred to a rearing tank. Fed on rotifers and enriched live baby brine shrimp, the larva go through a series of five or more molts. The problem that every aquarist runs into with raising shrimp is that the larva will not metamorphose from this final larval stage to the juvenile stage without the presence of a certain set of environmental cues. The larva stay in the final stage for weeks, even months, then finally die. To understand why this happens, think of the larval shrimp after it hatches. The tiny shrimp floats as part of the ocean’s planktonic community for many days while it goes through its series of molts. During this time, ocean currents will have moved it far from the reef where its parents were. These shrimp species have specific environmental requirements; they are usually found only in certain coral reef habitats. If the larval shrimp goes through metamorphosis and settles out in the wrong habitat, (such as the deep ocean, or a sea grass area) it will die. To avoid this problem, each shrimp can sense when it is directly above a suitable habitat. Then and only then, will it metamorphose into a juvenile shrimp and settle down onto the coral. The difficulty in rearing these shrimp is nobody knows for sure what these cues are, and how they can be reproduced in captivity. It may have something to do with water currents, water depth or some chemicals released into the water by living corals. It is probably a complex combination of factors, so raising shrimp in captivity will likely be a frustration for many years to come. Still, some shrimp (such as the peppermint shrimp, (Lysmata wurdemanni) have successfully gone through metamorphosis in home aquarium rearing tanks.

[billsreef]

I've heard of people having success keeping Harlequin shimp by feeding them chocolate chip starfish legs, and allowing the starfish to regrow the legs in a seperate tank. The chocolate chip stars are easy to feed and have a good survival rate after import, unlike the Linkias.

Jay,

I know the Lysmata are hermaphrodites, but thought the Stenopus were not. I've had pairs of Stenopus, but only one of the pair would ever have eggs.

[HarlequinMarine]

Cheers for that mate, that site is interesting.

t's a bummer that Austyralia isn't allowed to import any of them from the states. 30 buck is soo cheap. you guys have it easy.

Anyway, thanks once again.

Harlequin Marine

[jobiwan]

Keep 'em in starfish and you can't stop them from spawning, I used chocolate chip stars, I don't think they are fussy about variaties though, if you can raise the larva you will be a wealthy man...

[mash35231]

I bought a Harlequin to control the population of those little star fish that hide in live rock. At one time I had hundreds in my tank, but now there may be half as many.

[trueblackpercula]

were do i get a copy of your book. I too have raised salwater fish and plan on doing centropyge angels again. this time i will take it to the next level.