Harlequin Shrimp as a solution?

Everyday before my lights kick on I have about 30 of those little Astrea stars. Is purchasing a harlequin shrimp the best solution? One or two for a 55 gallon?

Any thoughts would help! I have the day off so I may pay the lfs a visit ;D

NG

 

There are several people that this worked well for. There was even a thread on this withing the last week. However, remember that once the asterina stars are gone, you are going to have to feed it which can get expensive.

 

+1

I wouldn't worry about them right now. If you start seeing their population increasing exponentially, i would invest in 2 harlequin shrimp.

 

Hmmm.... seems like I am a lot at the moment. How often do you feed once my astreas are gone? I have read a star once a month?

 

I used to have a Harlequin, I would feed him a sand sifter star every 3 weeks or so. He wasn't all too expensive to keep as my LFS gave me the stars very cheap since they knew they were food.

It was really an amazing little critter to watch as it hunted the stars and had "ant-like" strength pulling it out of the sandbed. Some feel it's a bit morbid but it's nature, albeit it controlled nature.

FYI, mine didn't eat Asterinas, not all of them will readily eat them. I have read about some that devour them, while other never touched them. I had caught mine to sell and while in it's container I put about 10 Asterinas, never touched them over a week period. Make sure the one you purchase eats them before you get one.

 

great advice!

 

I have read somewhere that somebody keep 2 chocolate chip star in their sump and take one out put in the tank let the shrimp eat parts of it and take the star out of the tank and put it back in the sump and the star would regenerate itself. So he would constantly have a star on hand.

 

I've read that too, however, with checking a few other sites, I got conflicting information about that. It seems most tried that approach only to have the star die in the sump, fouling up the water...leading to more problems than before. If it were me (as I am also looking into getting one), I'd buy a star every few weeks and feed it. Once it's done eating, manually remove the remains (if any).

 

Hmmmm...... Anyone else heard of this?

 

Yes, have read many that use that method. I was never able to put it to the test though as I didn't have a sump or extra tank when I had my Harlequin. I would think it might work but the regenration of the legs may take longer than one would think.

Another thing to note about my exp with my Harlequin was that he wanted to "hunt" and only liked to eat "live" stars. I had tried putting some legs in that my LFS gave me, they were recently cut off but my Shrimp didn't touch them in the few days I had them in the tank. Maybe it was just my exp but just wanted to add.