Harlequin shrimp, starfish and bioload

[adtravels]

Just wondering how significant and increase a starfish (medium sized red marbled linkia) a week as food for the shrimp pair is making on the bioload of my 50 gallon sumpless tank, I fear alot
I have skimmer but if a starfish died in the tank every week I would be concerned.

It was not a problem but now I have 6 fish (green mandarin 3 small pyjama cardinals and clarks clown pair) and want a fairly lightly stocked tank so am pulling them for a smaller tank.

 

[Hormigaquatica]

It would be a lot of wasted, dead biomass in the tank, which could foul the water pretty quickly unless youve got a huge filter system. Plus its a pretty serious waste of Linkia's.

I always advise against keeping harlequin shrimp, but if youre really committed to the idea, you may want to try keeping a few chocolate chip starfish, or some other species that is hardy (compared to linkias), in a sump/refugium. Once a week or so you can 'trim' off a leg for the shrimp to eat, while leaving the star to regrow its limb. That way youve got a rotating supply of legs and will end up sacrificing a much smaller number of starfish- saves on the lives and on money.

Another good option would be to find a fellow reefer who has a large group of Asterina starfish in their tank. These reproduce really quickly; a pair of shrimp would have to work pretty hard to out-eat a healthy colony of those. Then the food is free, and youre not constantly hacking limbs off of a larger star. The added bioload from a dead Asterina should be pretty small too- there would be little waste after the shrimp finished eating, and what waste there was would be quickly eaten by clean up crews. Again- I dont recommend those shrimp At All, but those are at least suggestions if youre going to do it anyhow...

 

[adtravels]

Ive been doing it for months, and its what they eat in the wild so its not a waste its natural food. Here in bangkok a linkia costs 20 baht (50 cents) and every dealer I know has a least a tank full of them that they snap legs off of.

And contrary to popular belief they are not difficult to keep just dont ship well and people take them out of the water for too long so they die they are as tough as old boots in my experience.

My question wasnt well put I fear, I really was trying to acertain if the bioload would be equvilent to a star simply dying and decaying or would the interim processing and digestion lower the bioload as the skimmer has time to,well skim as the linkia is kept alive up until the end.

ok i think your right they need to be on their own or in a huge tank with ample filtration.
Thanks

 

[dc]

Lucky you for the linkias. I kept a Harlequin in a 10 for 2 years, usually had 2-3 CC stars in with it. Even when an occassional one would dissolve the tank didn't seem the worse for wear. I religiously did weekly water changes with it.