Calappidae
Harlequin Shrimp
Hello, new to the forum
I had a few questions about harlequin shrimp.
First let me tell you a little bit of history I had with them: my first one I kept in a fluval spec 2 gallon desktop kit... it got sucked into the filter... the next one I got arrived and died during acclimation.. it was all sick and then decided to die by the end of the 2 hour drip acclimation.. the third one I had for a while, it was living in the same fluval 2 gallon, but I clogged the filter with the clothe from a carbon pack and all was well... Had him in there for about a month. then I notice my harlequin just randomly swam striaght up and fell back down acting all strange upside-down on it's back.. then it looked like it died.. so I added him to my 29 gallon reef and he dramaticly made a recovery next day. He lost both his claws but he lived and survived what ever happened before.. So I had him for about 2 months in there, I found out he was an Elegans species. So I went to my LFS and saw a female and I bought her so I could pair them up... then I found out she was a picta and they didn't bond but rather instead went were the food was. So after a few months one day something strange happened. I woke up one morning and in the front I had a camel shrimp just dead laying there, and the male harlequin got sucked into a powerhead. So I had her for another 2 months by herself. I got a MAJOR hair algae problem, and my relative who owned an lfs in the past told me to add water flow. So I turned the powerhead back on and rasied it up higher in the tank. right after I turned it on the harlequin flew all around the tank, then it gripped under a cave.. so I went to go buy some distilled water for a water change and she died in the back corner of the tank... like just laying there in the corner dead... haven't had a harlequin shrimp since because I felt so bad.. all the others where accidental filter and pump problems but this one I was a bit upset with myself about. All harlequins where eating frozen linkias. My LFS sold them frozen, I took a leg and gave one to the harlequins once a week, I would hold it in my hand from across the tank and they came to me and looked for the starfish. I tested my ammonia and ph everyday, and I tested my nitrite and nitrate every week or two. I never tested alkalinity, phosphates, calcium or anything like that.. I'm wondering if I was starving them.. if it was too weak to handle the water flow and just got finished off on the frozen diet. Surprisingly the only coral I had, which was a ricordae yuma, it was thriving better with the 2 year old single bulb that came with the tank than the t5s I have now :strange:
So my questions are..
1. Is the frozen starfish a good idea to feed them?
2. Can they handled that much water flow and pumps?
3. Has anyone had an experience keeping them for such a long period of time on a diet of frozen, or a diet other than starfish? Someone mentioned them eating hake which I'm going to try and experiment with.
What I plan to do is once I get my peacock mantis out of my 6 gallon (long story he had a 30 and something happened in my 29 so I had to move all my fish in his tank and take him out) and setup my 125, I would like to put sponges in the 6 gallon and a pair of harlequin shrimp. I have a hang-on skimmer and I stuffed carbon packs for cheap little betta filters into the outtake of the skimmer... my mantis has been doing pretty good like this :dance::dance:
Anyways... thats pretty much it...:strange:
I had a few questions about harlequin shrimp.
First let me tell you a little bit of history I had with them: my first one I kept in a fluval spec 2 gallon desktop kit... it got sucked into the filter... the next one I got arrived and died during acclimation.. it was all sick and then decided to die by the end of the 2 hour drip acclimation.. the third one I had for a while, it was living in the same fluval 2 gallon, but I clogged the filter with the clothe from a carbon pack and all was well... Had him in there for about a month. then I notice my harlequin just randomly swam striaght up and fell back down acting all strange upside-down on it's back.. then it looked like it died.. so I added him to my 29 gallon reef and he dramaticly made a recovery next day. He lost both his claws but he lived and survived what ever happened before.. So I had him for about 2 months in there, I found out he was an Elegans species. So I went to my LFS and saw a female and I bought her so I could pair them up... then I found out she was a picta and they didn't bond but rather instead went were the food was. So after a few months one day something strange happened. I woke up one morning and in the front I had a camel shrimp just dead laying there, and the male harlequin got sucked into a powerhead. So I had her for another 2 months by herself. I got a MAJOR hair algae problem, and my relative who owned an lfs in the past told me to add water flow. So I turned the powerhead back on and rasied it up higher in the tank. right after I turned it on the harlequin flew all around the tank, then it gripped under a cave.. so I went to go buy some distilled water for a water change and she died in the back corner of the tank... like just laying there in the corner dead... haven't had a harlequin shrimp since because I felt so bad.. all the others where accidental filter and pump problems but this one I was a bit upset with myself about. All harlequins where eating frozen linkias. My LFS sold them frozen, I took a leg and gave one to the harlequins once a week, I would hold it in my hand from across the tank and they came to me and looked for the starfish. I tested my ammonia and ph everyday, and I tested my nitrite and nitrate every week or two. I never tested alkalinity, phosphates, calcium or anything like that.. I'm wondering if I was starving them.. if it was too weak to handle the water flow and just got finished off on the frozen diet. Surprisingly the only coral I had, which was a ricordae yuma, it was thriving better with the 2 year old single bulb that came with the tank than the t5s I have now :strange:
So my questions are..
1. Is the frozen starfish a good idea to feed them?
2. Can they handled that much water flow and pumps?
3. Has anyone had an experience keeping them for such a long period of time on a diet of frozen, or a diet other than starfish? Someone mentioned them eating hake which I'm going to try and experiment with.
What I plan to do is once I get my peacock mantis out of my 6 gallon (long story he had a 30 and something happened in my 29 so I had to move all my fish in his tank and take him out) and setup my 125, I would like to put sponges in the 6 gallon and a pair of harlequin shrimp. I have a hang-on skimmer and I stuffed carbon packs for cheap little betta filters into the outtake of the skimmer... my mantis has been doing pretty good like this :dance::dance:
Anyways... thats pretty much it...:strange:
