fishy687 Posted September 14, 2006 Share Posted September 14, 2006 Hi I'm new to the world of saltwater tanks. And I'm thrilled. My roomate gave me the idea and now I have a little 1 gallon tank. Its real nice. I've had it running for about a week and I think its pretty well settled out. I put a feeder shrimp and a hermit crab in it to start and they're still alive so I guess thats a good thing. I want to get a harlequin shrimp and I know they are kinda hard to take care of. I was wondering is anyone knew anything about harlequin shrimp and if you have one, could you tell me about how you take care of yours. Link to comment
psidriven Posted September 14, 2006 Share Posted September 14, 2006 Ask pottygsxr. He's had one for over a year. Main limit is they only eat starfish and sea urchin feet. Link to comment
VannReefer87 Posted September 17, 2006 Share Posted September 17, 2006 hey there fishy, I've actually heard that some company is making a frozen variety food just for harlequins. If I find more info. I'll get back to you. -Cheers -Vannreefer Link to comment
Tballa Posted September 17, 2006 Share Posted September 17, 2006 Wouldn't suggest one to a newbie. Especially with such a small tank. They eat live starfish, but not all of it, and the rest will quickly fowl the water especially in a tank that small without a skimmer. Also they are very sensitive to changes in water quality and it is hard to keep it stable in such a small tank. I'd say either get a different type of cool animal maybe a small mantis would be sweet and easy to care for, or get a bigger tank with a skimmer. Good luck! VannReefer87, I would be very interested in a frozen food. it would take alot of hassle out of feeding my harlequins! Link to comment
FryedFish Posted September 17, 2006 Share Posted September 17, 2006 Wouldn't suggest one to a newbie. Especially with such a small tank. They eat live starfish, but not all of it, and the rest will quickly fowl the water especially in a tank that small without a skimmer. Also they are very sensitive to changes in water quality and it is hard to keep it stable in such a small tank. I'd say either get a different type of cool animal maybe a small mantis would be sweet and easy to care for, or get a bigger tank with a skimmer. Good luck! VannReefer87, I would be very interested in a frozen food. it would take alot of hassle out of feeding my harlequins! Because of them eating starfish it creeps me out lol...(I've seen them before too!) Link to comment
irishtexan Posted September 17, 2006 Share Posted September 17, 2006 Is a 5.5G big enough for a Harlequin? ^lol I know! It is pretty gross. texx Link to comment
PotysGSXR Posted September 20, 2006 Share Posted September 20, 2006 Is a 5.5G big enough for a Harlequin?^lol I know! It is pretty gross. texx I had a pair in a 5.5 for almost a year until the male died after it got crushed by a piece of LR. That was my mistake though. The female has been with me since April of '05 and was my first livestock for a nano tank. As a pair they use to eat one whole chocolate chip starfish every week. Now it takes the female about a week and a half to finish one off. The female was about 3/4" when I first got her and now she's more than 2" in length and has turned a VIBRANT blue. As far as leaving starfish remains, I have to somewhat disagree. It does leave remains behind but they're merely the "chips" of the Chocolate Chip star. These are very hard, almost calcium like and therefore don't rot. I say this from my experience with them and I don't know how other Harlequins eat, but so far, mine don't leave a single trace of other than the "chips" as mentioned. The "chips", however, turn brown after a few weeks and I didn't like that very much so I JUST started siphoning them out of my sand whenever I do a water change. Before that though, I never took them out of my 5.5 tank. That was for over a year. They are territorial unless they're paired up and will kill each other so if you want more than one, make sure to purchase as a pair. Awhile back, I bought a second smaller Harlequin to try and pair up with my existing female. I thought the new one was a male (I didn't know how to distinguish them at the time). The female wouldn't have it. She attacked right away and ripped off 2 of the legs. I immediately put the newer shrimp in a seperate container and saved it. It's now at a good home to someone local. They have also been known to spawn in captivity and breeding them is also possible. Not that there's a market for these guys. As for frozen food, I've never heard of this before and am also VERY interested. I know they will eat frozen starfish though and some LFS will sell frozen chocolate chip stars. There are people who suggest buying numerous starfish and feeding one leg at a time. This way, the star gets to grow its' leg back and everyone's happy (or at least alive). This is near impossible unless you have a tank full of at least 50 stars (literally). From my experience (please jump in if anyone knows differently), the legs take FOREVER to regenerate. I didn't have the food for the stars and although I had about 3 or 4 in a seperate tank at one point trying to rotate the legs, it just simply would not work. I agree that Harlequins aren't for newb reefers, but then again, I was when I got them. I also did a LOT of research on them. They are by far my favorite shrimp along with the Mantis. I was about to get rid of my current Harlequin as I was sick of buying starfish over and over, but after much though, decided to keep her and also bought another pair for my soon to be office nano. This is my 5.5g about a year ago. If you look reallly carefully, you can see the Harlequin shrimp in the bottom right behind some corals. As you can tell (maybe not), she's pretty small. About an inch at this point. This is her last week at over 2" Link to comment
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