harlequin shrimp food?

[huricaneredbone]

I have alots n lots of those tiny little sea stars in my tank. If I added a harlequin shrimp to my reef do you think he would eat those?

 

[Guygettnby]

yes but te shrimp would deplete them very quickly. so do not count on those little stars being a food source.

 

[huricaneredbone]

how much cud one of those shrimps eat? i mean I have a VERY healthy population of these stars...

 

[Guygettnby]

depending on the size of the tank. they could deplete them in a matter of weeks.

 

[JokerGirl]

it took a month for my ONE harly to deplete a 3 year growing crop in my 120g

 

[Sc Seahawk]

Do you need to Train the shrimp to eat these? Garf reccomends feeding them Asterinas with long tweesers. I tried this and they just look at me funny.
Also they jumped my sand sifting starfish and ate one of his legs. Do they regenerate legs? I put him in another tank to deter the harlequin so they eat the Asterina's
Thanks Guys

 

[charlesr1958]

Your starfish should be able to regenerate its lost arm, that is if it can find enough food to eat as these starfish most often do not do well in an aquarium setting and slowly starve to death over many months.
As others have said, a harlequin will most likely go through your Asterina supply quite quickly and you will have to come up with another source of starfish in due time.

The Harlequin Shrimp

Chuck

 

[Sc Seahawk]

My Starfish has been in my tank for 2+ years. So i think he finds plenty of food. As for the harlequin shrimp my plan is for them to exhaust my supply of Asterinas. I may feen them a Choclate chip star or two then I will send them to a friend that also has a starfish problem. When the Stars from both tanks are all gone I will list them on this forum for a trade etc.

 

[Sc Seahawk]

I just noticed them eating there first asterina Today after watching them pretty regularly over the week. I have had them for a week now. I will keep everyone posted on the progress in the tank. as far as how long it takes to kill me starfish