Something Weird!!

[Eric Noa]

Hello Guys,

A couple of weeks ago I bought a Fire Shrimp.... He has been hiding in back a rock ever since I bought him but he's alive cause I see him moving... Today I was looking around the tank and I see what it looks like another fire shrimp of the same size of the one that I bought. I thought it had die but it didn't cause the one I bought its still hiding behind the rock. What I found today it looks like if he had molted his skeleton... Similar to what snakes do with their skin... Do shrimps do this? I can really tell if its that because its in back of all the rocks in the bottom and I can't get to it to get and see what it really is... Im gonna see if I can take a picture.

 

[SeaBee]

Yup, my shrimp molt every month.

 

[Eric Noa]

I thought it would be that... I just wanted to make sure... do I need to removed the skeleton?

Here is the picture...To move it I would have to move all my rocks because is in back of them.

 

[dcantucson]

Yup, molting shrimps and crabs are a common occurrence. You can take the molt out of the tank if you want, but it won't harm anything.

 

[Hiker4twenty]

I leave my molts in the tank. The hermits usually pick at it for a little while and then it sort of breaks down over time.

 

[Sharkie]

id leave it in the tank :) it gives extra calcium to the hermits who'll munch on it :)

 

[ltljokersbetterhalf]

when we had our fire shrimp he did the same thing my husband thought he had died too but then he would pop up to see they are strange lil creatures and they do molt quite often. we always left the molted skin in the tank. and eventually they do start to cme out more and more so it will get to where you will see it more often and not wonder if it died when you see the molted skeleton

 

[Sharkie]

the molt is actually what allows them to get bigger over time.. crustaceans have an outer skeleton (exoskelton whatever you wish to call it) that they have to shed basically like a snake in order to get bigger... if he goes missing for a few days thats normal, it gives their body time to harden up again without being vunerable to "wild creatures" :)