My new beast..... = p

I picked up this awesome lookin guy after my starfish was brutally murdered by my CBS as I've always wanted one but didnt have the heart to let it eat my linkia. I've decided i have a stable enopugh popultaion of asternia @ work in our reef to sustain him (there everywhere in the sump/fuge) and i can get feeder stars easily. He's bout 1.75" and is non-stop after 9pm. Anyone here have/had the harlequin before? Anyone's personal experience with them (in home/@work, not research) will be of mush interest.

 

So he is very beautiful!!!!!!

About these Asterina stars......GARF says they are a nasty little star, but Dr. Shimek says they are fairly safe...

What is the general opinion? Cause I have some as well!

Did you get him to control the Asterina's? Are they bothering any corals you have? I would be interested to learn more about this shrimp as well!

 

WTF is that. Its very cool looking. How about a proper name so I can look up info about it. Cool...

Jay

Heres a picture of my new Scarlet Reef Hermit AKA Red Legged Crab.

Has anyone ever had these. I have 5 and they hardley move...infact only 2 haved moved more than a inch in 24 hours. I just got them yesterday along with about 20 Green Hermits and a small Green Brittle Star.

 

The shrimp is a Hymenocera picta or elegans....i believe the two to be one in the same and just a colar variant. Your crabs may be in shock, could be from a diff. in SG....temperature....or a combo of the two. I've found that they stay that way when the water temp dips lower than what the crabs are used to (that could vary greatly depending on how they were kept befor you got them).....
for birdlady, ive had heard many arguements from both sides of destructive or not....they can supposedly reach plague proportions but i have never seen that many. Just like bristle worms....some cringe @ the sight of them and go runnning for twezzers...whiole others see it as a sign of a healthy and balanced nano-ecosystem (unless they are takin over...lol) as i do. As far as ive seen the stubby stars are harmeless and if they are not then i have not seen them do enough damage to carals @ work to be noticable.

 

i had a scarlet hermit crab until just today--my starfish ate it!   :'(
He was a cool little guy. I acclimated him carefully and when I finally put him in he B-lined for my brown-algae-covered conch shell and started eating the algae. He didn't seem to be able to move very well over the sand but throughout the next couple of days, whenever I would check on him, he seemed to have climbed into a spot I never would have imagined him capable of. Check this out:
http://tinypic.com/e0euu
http://tinypic.com/e0ew5

I am gonna try to trade that stinkin' starfish to my LFS for a couple more crabs.... [smiley=bigcry.gif]

 

are asternia also chocolate chip starfish? the harlequin shrimp likes those.

 

My crabs perked right up today. Some of then anyway.
They are much bigger than the ones in your pictures. Mine are golfball size. I ordered 5 from a online retailer, II live 1.5 hours from any LFS so I buy on the net alot. Ive been using one that will ship crabs, snails,dusters,starfish and snails for 4 bucks. I have purchased from him 5 times and he keeps giving me better deals every time. This time he shorted me 1 red starfish as he was out of stock so when he mails me the star I will have him add some dusters and more Mexican Turbo's and I bet he wont charge me any shipping extra.

Jay

 

Sweet

Yeah I know exactly where Moses Lake is--I grew up in Richland.

Anyway, I was pretty surprised to watch my little fella climb all over the place, I never woulda imagined that he could. I need to get some more, just as soon as I get rid of the @%$@^ starfish.

 

PS
I found this while googling the harlequin shrimp:

http://www.fishpalace.org/H_elegans.html

"They'll even drop food such as shrimp that I feed the fish in that tank in the starfish's mouth to keep it alive (food which the shrimp itself does not take!)."

That is wacko!  What a weird critter.

 

Hey i know you! bpayh, this is nick from sea splender....lol. I fig. it out as soon as you said that star ate your red hermit and you want to trade it in for some crabs...smal net.