Want a second Harlequin shrimp. Info please

[Luckyduck]

Hey guys so I currently have what I'm 99% sure is a male Harlequin Shrimp as his tails underside is all white. I absolutely love this guy. They are such fascinating creatures and I really want to get him a mate. I have a steady supply of food from my LFS and I have a large sump with live rock where I keep a MINIMUM of 3 Chocolate chips at all times! Not all have 5 legs muwahahaha lol Anywho has anyone been in this situation? Is it as simple as jist buying a female ,bringing her home,acclimating her and letting her into the reef? Or to i need to do anything special like light some candles and play some Luther Vandros or something? Lol Seriously though jist not sure if it was possible to introduce an opposite sex Harlequin to one that has already established his den. Just for the full picture of things I have an 80 gallon display.

 

[Outlaw Corals]

You can just add it no special procedures required, they are really cool. I’ve been itching to get a pair, but I have a pistol shrimp that I think would blow them to pieces. Good luck.

 

[VintageReefer]

I have no idea but I’m wondering about your feeding methods. How big is your sump, what area do you put the ccs in? Do you feed the ccs? At what point do you discard or feed the remainder? I read you don’t want to take off more than 3 legs at a time…so do you feed the rest whole, or wait to regrow? My LFS said they have never had ccs regrow legs fast enough to be used again

 

[Luckyduck]

You can just add it no special procedures required, they are really cool. I’ve been itching to get a pair, but I have a pistol shrimp that I think would blow them to pieces. Good luck.

Thanks!! Super excited to get another. My wife loves my Harlequin. Until I feed him lol I will keep ya posted on this thread when I pull the trigger.

 

[Luckyduck]

I have no idea but I’m wondering about your feeding methods. How big is your sump, what area do you put the ccs in? Do you feed the ccs? At what point do you discard or feed the remainder? I read you don’t want to take off more than 3 legs at a time…so do you feed the rest whole, or wait to regrow? My LFS said they have never had ccs regrow legs fast enough to be used again

Hey! So I learned that your LFS is correct. I was hoping they would regenerate quick enough but they do not. I'm not sure about the whole 3 leg thing. I have some cut mine down to 1 and they are fine. I always make clean cuts and don't hack their legs to pieces. Very sharp knife. I'm not sure if maybe I've just gotten lucky and this is a risk of getting a starfish an infection by having so many legs missing but they're doing fine as of now. I wonder if an iodine dip would help. or if its even necessary. I will ask my friend tomorrow who owns the LFS. I have a very well established reef and my sump is probably 10 gallons of space with probably 10 lbs of established live rock. There is some detritus down there floating around so I think they have plenty to eat. I have had them in there for approximately 4 months. At this point I believe there is 4. Some of the early cut legs are starting to regrow but not at a sustainable rate. I guess it just more it tells me they are thriving down there and not struggling to survive.

 

[Luckyduck]

I have no idea but I’m wondering about your feeding methods. How big is your sump, what area do you put the ccs in? Do you feed the ccs? At what point do you discard or feed the remainder? I read you don’t want to take off more than 3 legs at a time…so do you feed the rest whole, or wait to regrow? My LFS said they have never had ccs regrow legs fast enough to be used again

They have access from the filter sock chamber which they love monching on those, the main area where my skimmer, reactor and live rock is, and the baffle past that that leads to the return pump chamber and my ATO chamber turned refugium but they can't get into those two areas because of the filter floss.

 

[VintageReefer]

My sump is 3 chamber,

Water in / skimmer - filled with detritus

Live rock, sandbed, algae scrubber - filled with detritus

Return - filled with detritus lol

Is that what they eat?

 

[VintageReefer]

I don’t run socks so that’s why the detritus ended up everywhere. If the ccs eats detritus and cleans my sump and my harlequin eats the ccs then win win!

 

[Luckyduck]

I don’t run socks so that’s why the detritus ended up everywhere. If the ccs eats detritus and cleans my sump and my harlequin eats the ccs then win win!

I believe so. I'm not 100% sure but mine seem to be thriving down there. Throw a couple live rocks down there and give it a go!

 

[TIGERWBLUEYES10]

I have a

You can just add it no special procedures required, they are really cool. I’ve been itching to get a pair, but I have a pistol shrimp that I think would blow them to pieces. Good luck.

3” pistol and neither of them have bothered each other yet

 

[VintageReefer]

The harlequin is reclusive and peaceful. I don’t see any issue.

The pattern also warns others not to mess with it.

 

[Stomatopods17]

Harlequin shrimp sometimes don’t pair if they’re not already paired up.

The worst case scenario when this happens is the female (larger and dominant) eats all the food and pushes away the male, but they won’t kill each other the male will just be found looking for food alone sooner by himself while the female might have another few days worth, which can result in bad feeding times for the male.

This is actually what my current female has done to a male already and why I chose to keep her a single lady, I may attempt again with a tank swap. However I did have a female h. Elegans, and a Hawaiian male pair and even spawn fertile eggs multiple times which sadly I would never get to see grow up to know what they would even look like.

As for the pistol, 6 year old tiger pistol never bothered any of the harlequins throughout its lifetime, harlequins actually pushed away emerald crabs from their den, and never experienced them going for urchins or serpents.

 

[Luckyduck]

So an update for the post...

My LFS finally got in a female Harlequin.
I picked her up a week ago and they are getting along great! Inseparable as a matter of fact. It took her a minute to realize the starfish I gave them that he was taking back to his Den. The next day they actually moved into a larger cave. They seem very happy together and my wife and I are enjoying watching them! I have upped my count of Chocolate chip stars that I keep on hand in my sump now having another mouth to feed. Went from 3 to 5.
We are really looking forward to watching these two grow together.