Harlequin Shrimp

[buttons buster]

I want to see everyone's shrimp



Here's mine:

 

[herpboyben]

i'll try to get pics of mine. do you have any pics of your tank? are the shrimp in their own tank or in a mixed tank?

 

[ladybug5234]

Here was mine a couple of months back before the little guy below chopped him in half during a molt:

Here's the bandit:

 

[Tennyson]

Aww, I love these guys! I'll try and get pics of mine in tomorrow.
Haha lol, mines named Harley too. lol

 

[Tennyson]

Pics!!!
-sorry for the 7 pics, i go crazy over my harlequin

Killing it's third meal!

Sticking it's claws where it's legs come out!!! ouch!

Anyway, I wanna get a partner for ?her?
Is it a boy or girl, I think its a girl right?

enjoy
-stephen

 

[ladybug5234]

Beautiful creatures!

Stephen, I am not sure, but I think you have a female. The little rippling appendages under the stomach tells you. Be very careful in sexing the other harley. He should not have those appendages. If you get two of the same sex together, you may run my same fate and end up with just one of them.

 

[Tennyson]

I found the site/article thing about them. It's a pretty good read.

http://www.chucksaddiction.com/harlequinshrimp.html

Umm, I'm pretty sure it's a female, on that article^ it says that the female's abdomen has blue spots while the male's abdomen is clear/yellow.
So I guess mine's a female

 

[Pufferpunk]

Does anyone know if they will eat my serpent or brittle stars? I need one to irradicate the asterina stars bothering my zoas. I do have 2 nice stars in the DT I will not be able to remove. I will then move the shrimp to a seperate tank for it's life.

 

[ladybug5234]

They will not eat serpent or brittles because they are too fast for them. Asterinas will be wiped out in a matter of days BUT you must feed them a starfish every 2-3 weeks after that or they will starve to death!

 

[Pufferpunk]

Yes, I realise that.

 

[philter4]

Ladybug5234, they eat brittle and serpent stars just as fast as anyother star. The first one I ever collected (right side of my avitar) was eating a common brittle star when I found it. It had eaten a big hole in the body and only 2 of the 5 arms remained attached, the others were eaten down to the body. I live in south FL, and when I can't find other stars I give them serpent stars and they eat them without problems.

 

[ladybug5234]

I guess a hungry Harley will eat anything, but their preference is not brittle or serpent, but linkia, sand-sifters, chocolate chips and asterinas - in that order. Also, what I meant was that the brittle and serpent starfish were too fast for the harlequins to catch, hold and eat. All this info I got from Melev's site.

 

[philter4]

The observation doesn't hold that as a fact, for instance Hoover, 1998, says harlequins attack all species of stars found in their habitat including the crown of thorns. and like I said the first one I found was eating a brittle star. As for the preference order, the hawaiian harliquins don't eat chocolate chips, they don't come from there so the order they eat stars has more to do with availability then other factors. I will agree with you on one thing, mine prefer linkia type stars, but they are not at all limited to them, they will eat Pufferpunks serpent stars the first chance they get if they are hungry

 

[Pufferpunk]

Darn, looks like I'm stuck with those pesky asterinas then.

 

[buttons buster]

Mine are pretty much in their own tank.

Here it is:

and here they are eating(man they do some damage lol):

Male shrimp: closest
Female: Farthest

 

[buttons buster]

and even more damage lol:

 

[Tennyson]

Ahh! this thread can't die yet lol!!

Here are some more pics, she's been out alot lol since she hasn't been fed for a week.

This was taken with the flash

This was taken an hour ago exactly

enjoy again
-stephen

 

[buttons buster]

Are there any online stores that have free shipping?

Since I'm moving in a week to a new area and know nothing about any LFS at my new residence.
I was thinking about just having starfish shipped to me

 

[REEF-n-Chicago]

Bluezoo has free shipping on 200.00 orders and chocolate chips on sale....

 

[Tennyson]

I have a question. My Harlequin looks like its about to molt. And I want to collect it's shell, but I'd like to know if they will molt while they're eating a starfish? Or will it wait after?