Harlequin shrimp experience

jayala12 · Feb 6, 2018

Just bought a harlequin shrimp and was looking for other reefers experience in keeping them. How often to feed ? How you feed ? Behavior? Just a general guide. I have researched and know what it entails (shrimp police ) lol just asking for personal insight

hybridazn · Feb 6, 2018

@mdbannister

jsker · Feb 6, 2018

You need to keep a couple of chocolate chip stars in the sump, break a leg off and feed one a week. Harlequins only eat starfish nothing else.

OceanL0ver · Feb 6, 2018

They are tough as nails. Ate all my small starfish (Astria?) hundreds of them. I didn’t take it out afterwards then it ate my sandsifter starfish. I need to re-home it

azreeftank · Feb 6, 2018

Mine has been in my tank for over a year. I am seeing him out more and More and he cleaned my tank of small starfish that used to be everywhere. As stated they eat nothing but starfish so if your tank is not loaded with small astrea stars then buy stars to feed him. They are amazing and beautiful and I like to see mine out all the time now.

Daniel@R2R · Feb 7, 2018

I had an asterina infestation, and my little harlequin did a great job of beating back that population to a reasonable number.

jayala12 · Feb 7, 2018

So do I just throw a cc star in my tank and he will do the rest ? That’s my main concern. I’m ok with buying him a star when he needs it my issue is do I just leave it in there and he does the rest ? Also yeah I have a lot of asterina in my tank as well

EmdeReef · Feb 7, 2018

jayala12 said:
So do I just throw a cc star in my tank and he will do the rest ? That’s my main concern. I’m ok with buying him a star when he needs it my issue is do I just leave it in there and he does the rest ? Also yeah I have a lot of asterina in my tank as well

I got one from a local reefer and kept in a 200g that was swarming with asterina, after about 4 mos you couldn't see almost any asterina and then I rehomed it. If you want to feed it you should keep the cc in a sump or another tank and chop off its leg every week or so to feed to the harlequin. The CC will regenerate but the chopping parts takes some stomach so I didn't want to keep it. The harlequin will most likely kill the the cc if you throw it in the tank, although sometimes they don't and can do all sorts of weird things like force feeding stars and keeping them just barely alive for food... Some people try to grow asterina in a separate tank and then feed some every few days. Gorgeous little monsters :)

jayala12 · Feb 7, 2018

EmdeReef said:
I got one from a local reefer and kept in a 200g that was swarming with asterina, after about 4 mos you couldn't see almost any asterina and then I rehomed it. If you want to feed it you should keep the cc in a sump or another tank and chop off its leg every week or so to feed to the harlequin. The CC will regenerate but the chopping parts takes some stomach so I didn't want to keep it. The harlequin will most likely kill the the cc if you throw it in the tank, although sometimes they don't and can do all sorts of weird things like force feeding stars and keeping them just barely alive for food... Some people try to grow asterina in a separate tank and then feed some every few days. Gorgeous little monsters :)

Wow sounds fun lol ... I’ve read they don’t have brains or nervous systems so they don’t feel pain . Would be pretty cool to see so I’m probably gonna get a cc this weekend and enjoy the show