My experience with harlequin shrimp

[Calappidae]

Videos wouldn't play for me. What's the difference between picta and elegans?

Pictas usually have pink, or red dots on them. Hawaiian harlequins are also consitured pictas as well. Hawaiian harlequins have a slight tint of yellow to their bodies (mixed with the white). Pictas have a slight tint of pink to their bodies as well.

Elegans instead have blue colors in their dots. They're skin usually has absolutly no tint to them and they are pure white.

Harlequin shrimp will change color based on mood, enviroment, etc. but it is only slighty noticable. For example, if you order a pair online, and if one is a picta, and one is an elegan, both could appear and look exactly the same.. there won't be any way to tell until they both calm down and go back to their true colors.


Very hard to tell.. but one of these is a picta and the other is an elegans:

The left one is a female picta (guessing female due to her size) and the right is a male elegans (again.. males are smaller than females)

 

[Calappidae]

I've been doing a little more google images research.. and I see alot more pink and blue harlequin pairs... so maybe color isn't the best way to determin the sp.

 

[The_fishkeeper86]

I became very interested in these shrimp after seeing a pair at one of our customers (I do aquarium maintenance) they are sharing the tank with a GIANT purple reef lobster so I'm surprised to hear even the likes of decorator crabs can be a danger to them.

Anyways, great thread the info has helped a lot for my 29 gallon shrimp reef I'm plumbing in system to my system!

 

[Calappidae]

I became very interested in these shrimp after seeing a pair at one of our customers (I do aquarium maintenance) they are sharing the tank with a GIANT purple reef lobster so I'm surprised to hear even the likes of decorator crabs can be a danger to them.

Anyways, great thread the info has helped a lot for my 29 gallon shrimp reef I'm plumbing in system to my system!

Thanks,

Harlequin shrimp can hold their own.. they don't take no bull even up against the largest oppenents... but how long is that really going to last? The shrimp are tough in defense.. but they can't do any damage to save their lives tho.. They just scare off predators with their colors and actions.

 

[The_fishkeeper86]

Have you heard anyone's experience with the rotating starfish arm feeding method? Like how many starfish you might need? I do have access to wholesalers so I'm wondering if its worth the effort if it doesn't cost me much to just throw them a whole star

 

[Calappidae]

Rotation doesn't always work.. each star will need housed seperatly as they are canbilistic.. and they can sometimes suffer internal damage from constantly bring them out of the water to cut legs. It can varie on the ammount needed to pull it off but its not recommended as the second, divided, setup will be problematic to set up and maintain...

To be more humane I freeze my starfish before feeding the shrimp and give them legs whenever they are hunting, its as expensive as live stars but just fed smaller portions more often.. you also get to see the harlys out walking around hunting more often this way instead of a constant 1-2 week long period eating a whole live.

 

[Calappidae]

I noticed some interesting behavior today when the lights went on.

I watch the male "poke" the female several times after the lights went on.. this may be a way they communicate and check on each other as I've seen them do this in the past whenever a large fish would swim by.

 

[Pdxile]

I'm wondering what quantity to feed. I don't want to go broke feeding them a star every week.I live very rural and the closest LFS is 60 miles away. Would one sand-sifting starfish (the only ones they have) be sufficient food for a month?

I've had mine for 2 months, I LOVE them. They spent the first month decimating my population of evil zoa-sucking asterinas. They lived on those for about 3 weeks, and I've since feed them 2 stars.

 

[Calappidae]

Time varies. I never fed a live star (except asterina) to the shrimp yet so I wouldn't be able to give a proper answer to that... but from what I've heard off other threads, lfs, and other articles.. 1 5inch CC starfish could last 1 week, 2 weeks, or in rare cases, a month... I think this time variety here could be either due to single shrimp or younger shrimp.

I live an hour from both LFS, I'll buy like 3 or 5 CC each trip and freeze them to save myself from having to go back for awhile. Stock up basicly.

I spend 20-30 dollars a month sadly..usually its 10-11 dollars a star where I am. I just recently got 50 asterinas from an LFS employee that I'm going to try to breed.. still have to buy the CC no matter how many I breed.. but I'm hoping I can decrease the need for them.

When you see your harlequin shrimp walking around and hunting will indicate the next feeding time.

They do eat sandsifters

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/MTHZ_uQhc6U" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Harlequin shrimp are surprisely easy to keep.. just costly is all..

 

[Pdxile]

Between mysis, pods and starfish feeding my tank is more expensive than feeding my Great Dane!

 

[Calappidae]

Feeding my pets is more expensive then feeding my family :lol:

 

[jarrod13]

Could you keep a pair in a 6 gallon fluval edge?

Also could they be kept with a bongo shrimp and share food?

 

[Calappidae]

Could you keep a pair in a 6 gallon fluval edge?

Also could they be kept with a bongo shrimp and share food?

Bongo shrimp prefer asterina sp. and microbrittles. Harlequin will avoid microbrittles, and the bongo I believe will avoid any of the larger CC or linkica the harlys like. The only conflict is if they are being fed asterina, either shrimp will go for them, and they do not like sharing, unless with their own mate. Its only a matter of if there is enough food for everybody, and finding asterinas/microbrittles for the bongos is not easy unless you know a fellow reefer or LFS employee that wants rid of them.

I had a single harly in a 2 gallon fluval and it got sucked into the filter so screen it off somehow.

In short summary, provide enough food for everybody indivigually, screen or block any low to the ground filter intakes (my harlequins never swam any high then 4 inches up the side of the tank so I'm safe to say overflows are fine if high enough ) and all should be good! :spin1:

 

[GhostCon1]

Great read! I got a pair of H. elegans from LA about a month ago and they are doing great. I was worried about food and no one near me had any stars (go figure) so I traveled 6 hours to WWC and picked up a red fromia.

My pair were interested in playing with it after 3 days of being home with no food (no telling how long since they ate at LA), but showed no interest in really flipping it.

After 2 days I took what I thought was my bone cutter and chopped off an arm. It turned out to be my PVC pipe cutter. Long story short: after target feeding them the chopped arm, they ate it and then promptly hunted the red fromia and devoured it within a week.

So, IME, they do eat red fromias, you just need to entice them.

Currently the little guys are finishing up a 4 inch CC. The little buggers are voracious!

 

[Calappidae]

Love the GIF!

I'm not an expert with starfish ID.. but If thats the fromia in the picture, I don't believe thats truely a fromia. It looks more like a linkica to me.

Source: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2312914&highlight=starfish+id

I've seen harlequins go for fromias before, but IME they always rejected them.. unless this may be one disadvantage with frozen.

You could make one big order of starfish online.. cost the same in gas expense :deadhorse1:

 

[Calappidae]

Found this picture of this super tiny little beast taking down a star 100 times its size! Very brutal in an adorable sort of way! :hmm5:

 

[GhostCon1]

Love the GIF!

I'm not an expert with starfish ID.. but If thats the fromia in the picture, I don't believe thats truely a fromia. It looks more like a linkica to me.

Source: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2312914&highlight=starfish+id

I've seen harlequins go for fromias before, but IME they always rejected them.. unless this may be one disadvantage with frozen.

You could make one big order of starfish online.. cost the same in gas expense :deadhorse1:

Thanks! Everyone in my club loves that I can make gifs with my phone lol

I did a google image search and found 7 different stars with the description of red fromia :hmm4:

The only one that looked like their dinner was listed as a red porous sea star.

I have a steady supply now (plus I really wanted to check out WWC).

Found this picture of this super tiny little beast taking down a star 100 times its size! Very brutal in an adorable sort of way! :hmm5:

These little guys are gladiators! WOW!:deadhorse:

 

[jarrod13]

What's a GIF?

Ghost, are you in east or west Georgia? I ask because here in Jacksonville (east) there are quite a few good lfs you would have to pass to get to Orlando if you came down 95

 

[Calappidae]

What's a GIF?

The middle picture he posted that showed the harlequin shrimp moving is a GIF. A GIF in short definition is just a short, moving, looped video posted just like a picture.

 

[GhostCon1]

What's a GIF?

Ghost, are you in east or west Georgia? I ask because here in Jacksonville (east) there are quite a few good lfs you would have to pass to get to Orlando if you came down 95

Oops, thought I answered this. East GA, I've Been to bio reef and coral logic. Those are the only two decent ones I know.