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Harlequin shrimp — printable fact sheet
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Harlequin shrimp
Hymenocera picta
Hymenocera picta eats one thing: sea stars. It has no fallback diet, and its entire body plan is a set of tools for that job. The flattened, petal-like antennules sniff out prey chemically; the enlarged, blade-flat claws are used not to crush but to lever a starfish's arm free o…
Did you know?
- Harlequin shrimp can survive for weeks on a single sea star, methodically consuming it limb by limb while keeping the star alive for as long as possible.
- A pair of harlequin shrimp can spend over a week consuming a single large starfish, and the star is generally still alive for most of it. Their claws are not strong pincers - they are broad, flat paddles better described as prying and cutting tools than crushers. Aquarists who buy them are committing to a permanent supply of live sea stars, since the shrimp will starve rather than eat anything else.
What I learned
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