Harlequin shrimp and frozen fish

[elysics]

So i recently got a harlequin shrimp because i had to pull small stars from zoa polyps two days in a row, and it is doing a great job getting rid of them.

And i got it fully expecting to pass it on, with a taker lined up. But it is so beautiful that i almost want to keep it, and in one small forum someone wrote that the kept them more than a year on a diet consisting mainly of pieces of frozen cod. I just offered some frozen wild salmon and it looks like the shrimp is eating it. Hard to say though, it is sitting on the fishmeat and holding on hard and from time to time it looks like it is putting flesh against it's mouth parts, but with all the camouflage it is not very easy to see whether it is actually chewing on it or just attacking

 

[fishguy242]

hi very rare in my opinion,hope so,options find a lfs ,or local reefer who has asterinas,2nd chocolate chip star pieces,
@Thespammailaccount any thoughts??

 

[Thespammailaccount]

They are almost majestic aren’t they I have not heard of them eating frozen fish. I have heard of some people feeding frozen starfish legs however since it is dead it will create ammonia which could be a real problem in a small tank. Same with the fish if they do eat that but I am not sure they will. I have two pair and I feed live chocolate chip starfish. The shrimp will actually feed the starfish so it stays alive until they eat it all. Since you only have one if it is small one starfish a month should feed it. They hunt in pairs to flip the starfish on its back so you might have to help it get the starfish over. The thing about asterina starfish is that one shrimp needs about 50 a day to live

 

[Thespammailaccount]

If feed the correct diet these shrimp live seven years on average. This is my largest pair. The female is at least two inches in length. This is her molting

 

[elysics]

Well i don't know what to say, it sat on the fishmeat for almost three hours and is currently sitting around with a smaller piece of meat it ripped off and scurried away with. I don't think this could qualify as defensive behaviour anymore

 

[Thespammailaccount]

Well i don't know what to say, it sat on the fishmeat for almost three hours and is currently sitting around with a smaller piece of meat it ripped off and scurried away with. I don't think this could qualify as defensive behaviour anymore

It is the fact that the person was only able to keep the shrimp alive for a year on cod that makes me question if it in fact slowly starved to death. In the last 10 months mine have grown from a half an inch up to two inches. My smaller pair is smaller because the larger pair frequently steals food from them which they just add to their pile

 

[Thespammailaccount]

These shrimp are not commonly seen or sold in mass volumes one because they are extremely hard to raise to settlement and two because they are still trying to find an alternative other than live starfish that they can eat

 

[elysics]

It is the fact that the person was only able to keep the shrimp alive for a year on cod that makes me question if it in fact slowly starved to death. In the last 10 months mine have grown from a half of an inch up to two inches. My smaller pair is smaller because the larger pair frequently steals food from them which they just add to their pile

Yeah that makes sense, maybe theres some crucial aminoacid or something missing in cod. How fast do they usually starve if they don't eat anything?

I just looked it up again that guy had two, one vanished after 4 months, the ather after a year, he mentioned problems with other inhabitants attacking them to steal their food though and a porcelain crab outright attacking them

 

[Thespammailaccount]

Yeah that makes sense, maybe theres some crucial aminoacid or something missing in cod. How fast do they usually starve if they don't eat anything?

I just looked it up again that guy had two, one vanished after 4 months, the ather after a year, he mentioned problems with other inhabitants attacking them to steal their food though and a porcelain crab outright attacking them

I am not sure but I had a nudibranch that lived for about six months before I felt so bad I pulled it from the tank. That makes sense I am sure everything in the tank from fish to CUC would go after a frozen piece of fish

 

[Leslie Tabor]

It is the fact that the person was only able to keep the shrimp alive for a year on cod that makes me question if it in fact slowly starved to death. In the last 10 months mine have grown from a half an inch up to two inches. My smaller pair is smaller because the larger pair frequently steals food from them which they just add to their pile

This. Yes, it might live for awhile but no where near what it should. This is the same argument you see with dragonets and pods.

 

[Thespammailaccount]

These people in conjunction with the Columbus zoo in Ohio were able to raise harlequin shrimp to settlement and were working on a ‘secret sauce’ that the shrimp would eat other than live starfish. That was many years ago. Have not heard anything since

Quality Marine Introduces Aquacultured Harlequin Shrimp

Beautiful aquacultured Harlequin Shrimp, captive-bred by Aquatic Technology of Ohio, make an aquarium trade debut at Los Angeles-based marine aquarium

www.reef2rainforest.com

 

[elysics]

These people in conjunction with the Columbus zoo in Ohio were able to raise harlequin shrimp to settlement and were working on a ‘secret sauce’ that the shrimp would eat other than live starfish. That was many years ago. Have not heard anything since

Quality Marine Introduces Aquacultured Harlequin Shrimp

Beautiful aquacultured Harlequin Shrimp, captive-bred by Aquatic Technology of Ohio, make an aquarium trade debut at Los Angeles-based marine aquarium

www.reef2rainforest.com

Interesting, and beautiful pictures in that link btw.

So getting them to eat doesn't seem to be a problem, off to google scholar to find the nutritional contents of star fish if such a thing exists lol

Edit: Seems like they just stretch out starfish with other food, just like supplementing the star fish diet with a fishmeat diet:

"Earlier today I spoke with Greg Smith from Aquatic technology and they have created a prepared food to feed the shrimp that contains various ingredients, including bits of previously frozen starfish and other proteins " from a bit of googleing

 

[Thespammailaccount]

Interesting, and beautiful pictures in that link btw.

So getting them to eat doesn't seem to be a problem, off to google scholar to find the nutritional contents of star fish if such a thing exists lol

Edit: Seems like they just stretch out starfish with other food, just like supplementing the star fish diet with a fishmeat diet:

"Earlier today I spoke with Greg Smith from Aquatic technology and they have created a prepared food to feed the shrimp that contains various ingredients, including bits of previously frozen starfish and other proteins " from a bit of googleing

The only thing I question is that although they are working on a product no product exist. More than likely the shrimp are not living a long time due to starvation. Their diet is live starfish. This is what they eat in the wild. This is their diet. You can pick one up at a LFS for less that 12 bucks. If not willing to feed the shrimp I would recommend passing it on to the next reefer like you had originally intended to do. It is probably already starving considering from your initial post you did not have too many asterina starfish to begin with and they need about 50 a day