Harlequin Shrimp

[Live Rock]

Hi everyone I have a few questions on harlequin shrimp:

1. How many asterina stars do they need per week?
2. What is their normal price range?
3. Are they more/less hardy in terms of water quality than my skunk cleaner shrimp?

Thanks for any answers. :D

 

[Dana42078]

1. Couldn't tell you. IME if i had to guess about 5-10 dime size.
2. 30-40
3. Idk, just keep your water as clean as possible and you wont have to worry. I had two but one died a while back, not sure how it died but the one i still have does fine in my tank.

Once he/she cleans your pests out you will need to feed the harlequin. Id keep a close eye on your asterina population to know when to start feeding. My reef had about 100-400 pests and they both went through them in a matter of a month. Very pretty shrimp tho, very fun to watch at times and its cool to hand feed them. My mantis tank has asterina's so ATM ive been pulling out the big ones and feeding to the harlequin in the reef by hand. =)

 

[little_fish]

1. I have no idea, but they will clean a tank of them, but it might take a few months. After that you will need to find them either a new home or buy starfish for them to eat every couple of weeks. I would talk to dana about how often and how much he feeds his shrimp.

3. They should be on the same hardiness level

 

[Dana42078]

They should be fed a starfish once a month, a whole one....its a plus to have multiple tanks if you have a harlequin. You can get a nice sized starfish and just cut a leg off at a time.....but i kinda hated doing that so i just would give the whole starfish to him....

 

[Salty B]

Mine is still in the asterina eradicating phaze. He's taken care of 100+ tiny 1/8" ones in 2 months. Dana...how big of a star are you feeding? I probably got about a month's worth of asterinas left so I need to figure out a feeding schedule. Can star legs be frozen and fed at a later date or do harleys only eat it live?

 

[Dana42078]

Haven't tried freezing anything. The stars that I've fed are about the diameter of a baseball give or take. Usually takes him a week or two to eat.