Fire Shrimp Molting

svirid

Fish Crazy
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Mar 22, 2007
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Toronto, Canada
Good day,

today morning I looked into one of the caves below my rocks and it was awful I thought one of my shrimps has died. She was on the sand without any moves. I started to look for another one and how I was surprised when I found two of them happy and alive. I looked closer into the cave and realized that that died shrimp was just a skin but it looked exactly as shrimp.

Guys my questions is, do I have to remove that skin from the tank or it must stay there?
and is that a normal for shrimp to molt? or something is missing in my water.

Thank you very much.
 
lol I think everyone that has shrimp or similar inverts has had this moment of "OMG its dead, hang on, how come I now have two........"

As shrimp (and crabs) grow they often need to molt their old exoskeleton which becomes to small for them. It is a good thing as it shows they are growing ok. Fire shrimp apprently can molt as often as once a month but more likely will molt once every 2-3 months. Even when they are fully grown they will still molt regularly and many inverts can grow back lost limbs over several molts.

You can leave the molted exoskeleton in the tank as apprently they will eat it. I haven't seen mine eat it but I left it in the tank and it was gone after a couple of days so something ate it :)
 
Thanks its always good to know that everything is okay in your tank.
It wont bring any ammonia or nitrates right if I leave skin there?

I will probably leave it for a couple of days and remove it after if its still there.

Thanks
 
lol yeah, I went through the same thing when my shrimp molted for the first time.. even though I'd read all about it and was expecting it, you can't help but wonder if it's dead!

I always leave my shrimp's exoskeletons in there.. I don't know if it's the shrimp who eats it but by the following morning it's always gone. It won't affect the ammonia or nitrite if you leave it in.. if it does, it'd only be the tiniest trace amount anyway..
 
ahh I had a molt/death scare the other day heh, my cleaner shrimp was dragging around the shedding of a big hermit crab...I was hella confused for a bit.
 

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