harlequien shrimps

[abrahamcho]

Did any have a hard time keeping harlequien shrimps? Did anyone own one before? Can u tell me how to keep one?

[MrManz1691]

i looked into getting a pair of them and decided against it for the time being. For one around here they are about 35-50$ each. Granted they look great, and are easy to keep except for one thing. They need to eat star fish to stay alive. Most people feed choclate stars to them. I am not 100% sure if they kill them and then eat them, or if they slowly eat them alive. But you need to get them a star fish either once a week or once a month i dont remember. I am still thining of plumbing a small 10-20 gallon into my system and getting some though.

[abrahamcho]

ohh ic do you know how much these chocolate stars are? For real they really do look really nice and they are an attention grabber. I am trying to get the rarest and the nicest lookin inverts. LOL

[charlesr1958]

I hope this will be of use to you:

The Care & Breeding of Harlequin Shrimp

Chuck

[MrManz1691]

around here a choclate star is about 10$

[abrahamcho]

Wow 10 bucks every week... That was useful thanks charles and I have a question for anyone, umm was anyone successful in gettin the shrimp to eat anything else except for the stars? IS there are way to get cheaper food?

[fishnutz27]

From the referenced doc...

" Is there an acceptable food alternative for harlequin shrimp? " No, not that I am aware of. Starfish are their only food source. This factor alone should be a large consideration when deciding if you are going to keep this species of shrimp or not. Some would argue, and with good cause, that the keeping of harlequin shrimp places an unnecessary strain on wild starfish populations. This is a moral decision that I will leave up to you.

[abrahamcho]

Ic... Does anyone here have one?

[rydr119]

I have 1 in a 20 gal softies and lps tank. Its doing great, yes they do need to eat starfish but what can be done is I bought 3 choclate chip stars and I have a second 20 gal with just sand and small rocks and a chromis. I put these guys in there and once a month I take a very sharp knife and cut off a leg and put in with the shrimp. The shrimp eats the leg and the star repairs itself so I dont have to keep buying starfish as food. Also mine like krill but thats not typical so dont count on that being a food source.

[philter4]

I have a pair I collected in HI in nov 2006, (depending on who you ask there are 2 sp, picta and elegans, one purple the other wine red) they are doing great, and IMO as far as putting pieces of star in that has 2 big problems for a star to repair itself takes a lot of food, and I don't think many can repair 1 whole leg in a month so you just lose the star. Also the star risks infection at the site, and mine eat a whole star every 7-10 days, I think mine would starve if I only fed it once a month.

As far as putting a burden on wild stars to collect as food, most places ccarry the stars for other reasons, and the number of harlequins in the hobby is not enough to impact the or change the collection of wild populations. I'm lucky inough to collect my own stars and they have a big preference for linkias but as others have said, knowing what the eat if you choose to keep them you are responsible to feed them.

Here is my female, sorry she wasn't the main focus of the shot, but you can still see her.

[abrahamcho]

When you cut the star's leg doessnt it bleed?

[rydr119]

No it dosen't bleed. I agree as far as the impact on the starfish population from feeding these shrimp. In florida starfish tend to cause over population problems and can ruin some of the grass bends and whatnot so it all depends on how you look at things.

[abrahamcho]

ic I think I am going to pick up some then. The only problem is that over here they dont have any chocolate stars. Does anyone know any RELIABLE sites that sell some?

[philter4]

They don't have to have chocolate chip, any star will do, when I caught the female in the photo she was running across the sand toward a ledge (where the male was hiding) dragging a brittle star that was 3 times her size. In my tanks they will leave any star no matter how much they have eaten if I put a linkia star in. If I put 2 in together, a linkia and any other they go for the linkia first in all cases. I can only tell you about the ones I have, but several sources on natural history of the animal state they eat all stars found in habitat, and the ones I have come from Hawaii where there are no chocolate chip stars.

[abrahamcho]

ohh okay then thanks everyone for the help. I learned alot.

[wicked_NaCl_h2o]

I wish we could buy the crown of thorns starfish.. I'm sure the great barrier reef would benifit from that. If we kept buying the crown of thorns that are eating away the oceans coral reefs.