Hyvä otus jos altaassa on liikaa Asterina meritähtiä! Huom. Syö vain meritähtiä!

Their highly specific diet is probably the most fascinating thing about this shrimp species. Harlequin shrimp only eat starfish and nothing else. Maybe they’ll have a nibble at the odd sea urchin, but that’s it. This is what makes them a bit more challenging to keep than many other shrimp: you’ll have to be able to provide a constant flow of starfish.

A few points about this strange diet of starfish:

• Harlequin shrimp only eat starfish legs. This means that you can keep a bunch of starfish in your refugium and snip off one of their legs for shrimp feeding time; the leg will regrow quite quickly.
• Asterina starfish, a small species that’s generally considered a pest, is one of the starfish on the menu. Yay! If any of your reef-keeping friends or your local aquarium shops are struggling with asterina, you can ask them to keep them for you after removal from the tank.
• You can buy starfish in bulk and freeze them.
• Be sure to remove uneaten bits after a few hours to prevent the aquarium water from spoiling.

Harlequin shrimp hunting behavior is fascinating. Larger starfish might be kept alive for days or weeks at a time while the shrimp feast on their legs.