Harlequin Shrimp Questions

[lnevo]

Hey all,

So Sunday I purchased a Harlequin shrimp to take care of my asterinas. I have a few questions regarding long term care and looking for opinions.

First off the asterinas have been up on the glass en masse. Should I be collecting them and transfer to the sump to keep a population going?

If your feeding them asterinas, can that be a long term diet? How many asterinas would you need to feed them on a regular basis?

Asterinas aside, I'm thinking of getting some chocolate chip stars and keeping them in the fuge area of my sump. I heard you can rotate breaking arms off of them. How many can you keep in a small fuge section like that? Would i need to feed them separately or can they scavange what makes it down there? And if you feed them whats the best way to do so?

My other option is to get sand sifters but theres no sand in the fuge so it would have to be like a once a month purchase and just toss in the tank.

What do you guys do to care for harlequins long term?

Oh and do you keep them solo or in pairs, I'm thinking of getting a female to join the male I purchased.

 

[jdino]

I had two harlequin shrimp for the same purpose. They did a good job and cleaned up the asterina in my tank (90 gal) in about a month. I heard about the chocolate chip star thing, I admit I tried it but felt it was cruel to purposely cut a limb off the starfish. I decided I would just pass the Harlequin shrimp off to another member.

 

[Lee]

I am doing exactly what you are suggesting. I bought one male Harlequin and would like to add a female as soon as i find one. The one that I have ate all of my asterina in a couple of weeks (and i did put some in my sump to keep a living population). Eventually even the ones in my sump ran out. I currently have 3 CC stars in my sump and I feed a leg a week to my shrimp. The first time I cut a leg it wasn't easy, but I keep telling myself that they are just food. The legs do not regenerate fast enough and I will eventually throw in what is left of each starfish, and then will need to replenish. I am hoping to find that female before I need to put more than just a leg in, so that the 2 shrimp can share. I do feed the CC starfish krill when I can get to them. The CCs are amazing escape artists and won't stay in the fuge section of my sump even though I keep trying to trap them there. They always make their way into the section of my sump where my filter socks are.

 

[Geraud]

I always fed mine complete chocolate chip starfish. My female was huge (she was spawning frequently), and it was only taking them a week to ten days to finish a big CC.

 

[lnevo]

Geraud did you buy and feed the CCa as needed or keep in sump? The opening between my skimmer chamber and sump is pretty small but i guess i shouldn't underestimate mother nature's creatures...keep these stories coming, i get attached to things not sure I will want to part with him when he's done.

 

[Geraud]

I was just buying them, every 2-3 weeks basically, since they were eating them so fast. On a side note, sand-sifters seemed to not degrade as fast as CC's

 

[lnevo]

And i wouldn't have any fear of sand sifters roaming across my tank. You think sand sifters would be ok in the sump without sand?

How much were you paying for stars? Seems like 2 per month is a pretty costly little shrimp, maybe having a pair not such a simple thing.

Guess maybe in the end they should be easily catchable. Easy enough to pass along to the next reefer.

 

[Geraud]

The stars, in general from 10 to 15. And yes it ends up being expensive. Plus you have to depend on LFS for food. Back in October 2012 I ended up not getting one for weeks. All stores were out. Lost the female. Then the male during Sandy. Love these critters, but since my tank is kind of overflowing with corals, no real "place" for them to position themselves with a starfish, so I decided to not buy a new couple.

As for the sand sifters, I believe you do not need much sand to make them happy. However, I had read somewhere that most were dying in captivity, from lack of proper food, so you might not be able to keep them there for very long.

This is a video (not very good quality alas) of my female spawning. This is after lights out (they usually spawned about one hour after the last light stopped). As you can see, the LPS loved it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FqCZKTTSq0

 

[SI REEF]

has anyone tried using local starfish as food for the shrimp? If so is it possible to freeze the starfish and feed a leg as needed?

 

[lnevo]

You can freeze them but then they rot faster in the tank supposedly. Good question on local starfish.

 

[Paul B]

Our Long Island water used to be filled with starfish, not they are all but gone. I don't know why

 

[SI REEF]

i see a lot of the when I am diving the inlets.

 

[Nottick]

I feel once its frozen any parasites die off. But I'm no expert. Also as far as deterioration.... if you give it a piece that will last it three days that's too big of a piece IMO