The exquisite harlequin shrimp, Hymenocera picta, Dana 1852 is a marine ornamental aquarium species that is maintained on a specific diet of comet seastars, Linckia multiflora. The high price and difficulties in supplying live seastars throughout the year represent limitations to their sole use within commercial scale production. By freezing seastars, it is possible to bank a supply of food, however, the survival, growth and maturation of shrimp fed this frozen product needs to be investigated to determine whether this form of presenting food to the shrimp is appropriate. A total of nine pairs of two-month old captive bred harlequin shrimp (three pairs of shrimp per treatment group) were fed to satiation on a daily basis over a period of five months on either live L. multiflora, frozen L. multiflora, or frozen sand stars, Astropecten sp. Significant differences (p≤0.05) in the growth and survival of H. picta fed live and frozen prey were observed. All six shrimp fed the live L. multiflora survived but only four of the shrimp fed the frozen L. multiflora survived to the maturation stage. None of the shrimp fed the frozen Astropecten sp. survived to the end of the trial. Of the shrimp fed either the live or frozen L. multiflora, all the females showed better growth than males, however, only the females fed the live L. multiflora spawned at 5 months old. The shrimp fed the frozen L. multiflora were not able to spawn within the period of the experimental trial, however, on termination of the study, a single female was found to have developing eggs. In conclusion, live prey is necessary for the normal development of harlequin shrimp, however, frozen prey can be given for short periods when live prey is unavailable but this delays growth and the normal maturation process.