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Innovative Marine Aquariums

Official Harlequin Shrimp (Hymenocera elegans) Thread


pmoradi2002

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They will decimate an asterina population. You must supplement their feeding with real starfish like chocolate chips. Supposed to feed a pair once every 2 to 3 weeks a choco.

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danthenewreefman

2 full size astrea per week per harlequin seemed to be right for mine...

 

until my girl sprayed ant poison in the room with my tank.... :-(

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not the best pic but here's mine. always eating asternias. does anyone know how to tell if male or female. i may want to add another to see if they will pair up.

newadditions41011002.jpg

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supposedly, the females bottom abdominal plate is colored, while a males is all white.

thanks. that shouldn't be too hard. are they easy to get to pair up?

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So, when you feed the shrimp the starfish, and you throw it into the center of the tank, do the harlequins pin it down or something and keep it there? Or does it move around while there eating it?

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danthenewreefman

oh no, they got gangstar spears, they go bananas...

 

flip it over, spear it, and carry it around for a few days.

 

 

very impressive little animal, highly specilaized

 

I'd drop the astrea right on the harley, it got her mad like "oh no he didn't!!!"

 

 

but they will hunt for um too, just takes them a while to flip the star over if it has a good grip

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What are the requirements for keeping them?

 

A shrimp is about the last thing I can add, and i'm making a slow decision about it.

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I feed my harely a choco star leg every 2-3 weeks. Everytime I feed it, it molts lol its so cool.

 

I have noticed the colors getting darker on mine, and he is getting huge!

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pmoradi2002

I have 2 starfish, many asterias, and many bristle stars. They don't touch any of them. One of them stands on one of the stars but won't nom it :(

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Yeah the fast moving brittles and serpents are too much for monk waving harlequins. Wax on, wax off, wax on, wax off...

 

bongo shrimp will fuxor them up though.

 

Not as cool looking though IMO.

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Yeah the fast moving brittles and serpents are too much for monk waving harlequins. Wax on, wax off, wax on, wax off...

 

bongo shrimp will fuxor them up though.

 

Not as cool looking though IMO.

 

how do i keep my water quality decent in a 8.5g nano with a half dead starfish in it for a week at a time? :\ i really like these and have a sump (my uncle who lives a city away) that i could put the starfish in to possibly regenerate legs but dont know how often and how much these guys need feeding if i went this route.

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el fabuloso

I feed my pair a whole starfish and it takes them more or less a month to finish it all. I wouldn't recommend doing this in a small tank though and it would probably be better to feed them one leg at a time.

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So if you feed one leg at a time, you buy a chocolate chip star, chop off a leg and keep it in a separate tank? How fast do the legs regenerate? Will a "damaged" starfish produce ammonia?

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el fabuloso

I know it takes the starfish some time to regenerate which is why people who use that method keep several in a separate tank. As for in-depth details, I can't say since I don't use that method. Hopefully someone knowledgeable can chime in.

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El fab, you kept yours in a 3 gal right? Did you have any problems keeping a dead starfish in there for a month? If Im not mistaken it was just the normal maintenance of weekly WCs aided by a refugium right?

 

(beautiful tank btw :))

 

EDIT: oops that was your sexy tank. What size did you keep your harleys in?

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so If I were to get a pair in my BC 29 I could throw in a whole starfish (Linckia Multifora) and it would feed them for a month? then how long until I put another one?>

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