harlequin shrimp

[molsen187]

first things first hello everyone. new to this forum and still realativly new to the hobby. this is my second tank. its in the process of cycling now. i was wondering if anyone here has experience with harlequin shrimp. i've never kept shrimp before and these ones seem awesome. i know they only eat starfish.i was wondering if a 55g is big enough for two of them. they would be in there with a blood shrimp or two and a skunk cleaner. the fish i am gna put in are def two clowns. maybe a flame angel or pink spotted goby then one or two small fish. would the h.shrimp be ok with these fish. would they be good with the other shrimp i have in mind. they are just stiking animals and i would love to have them in my tank. i'm willing to buy choco stars for them as i heard these are the stars they enjoy the most. and two of them will feed the shrimp for a month. any advice from people who have kept these creatures successfully in a home aquarium would be greatly appreciated and enthusiastically recived. they won't be going in for two to three months at the soonest. if they need more stable conditions i'm willing to wait. if they won't fit with the livestock i have planned what is the minimum tank size i could keep these guys in.

 

[Anonymous]

I have kept a pair at home for a couple years. Your tank size and stocking plan should be fine.
Its not that they like chocolate chip stars the best, its that CCS are usually the least expensive stars available. Harleys will eat almost any non serpent star. The problem with them is that they can eat clams and corals, so some people keep them in the sump, or freeze them and feed them out an arm at a time. CCS can be difficult to cut though.
I usually feed mine linkia, but keep a ccs or sand sifting star in another system for emergencies.
As for how many, how often, that depends on your shrimp and on the size of the starfish you feed them. I feed mine every two weeks to a month, but I also have a population of astrina's.