When should I remove feeder the star (harlequin shrimp related)

[Brad S]

Its a 24 gallon tank and I worry about the star dying and decomposing... I've been removing them the second their actual body opens up... I just pulled the most recent star who's body is split in half with white strands emerging from the wound, but it still had healthy tube legs on its arms, so I just dropped it back in the tank and the harlequin immediately dragged it back to its cave... I'm just having a hard time telling when the star is actually dead...

[NateHanson]

You could try testing ammonia every day, and if you ever got measurable levels then you know you went too far, and you should pull it out earlier.

This is a tricky thing to do in a small tank because you have to keep your shrimp fed, but they feed on half-dead starfish. Kind of a catch-22.

One thing that might help is feeding them the smallest starfish you can find. If they're only an inch or two they'll probably be consumed before they rot. You'll need a lot of them though.

I wonder if you could acclimate local stars to our tank temps. I wonder if they'd live for a week while the shrimp consumed them. They're very plentiful in any rocky area around here (there) with tide pools.

[Brad S]

You could try testing ammonia every day, and if you ever got measurable levels then you know you went too far, and you should pull it out earlier.

This is a tricky thing to do in a small tank because you have to keep your shrimp fed, but they feed on half-dead starfish. Kind of a catch-22.

One thing that might help is feeding them the smallest starfish you can find. If they're only an inch or two they'll probably be consumed before they rot. You'll need a lot of them though.

I wonder if you could acclimate local stars to our tank temps. I wonder if they'd live for a week while the shrimp consumed them. They're very plentiful in any rocky area around here (there) with tide pools.

funny you should mention that... I was thinking about that yesterday while I was out on a boat... I kept seeing them all over the dock... Next round of stars I'm going to freeze one, chop a part off and see if he'll accept that...