whats a molt look like???

J

j.p. harrington

New member
so i bought a fire shirmp yesterday and it seemed to be doing ok all day yester day well when i woke up i see like the exoskeloton of it hanging on the bottom of one of my rocks near sand bed. the body is hollow its a clearish red more red than clear and still has everything connected all i can see is that its like cracked open in the middle of its back width wise not lenght wise.

did my shrimp molt already or is it dead? if it had molted when can i expect to see it again?
 
Sounds like a molt to me. My shrimp seem to lay low for a day after molting, though if I look closely I can see their little head popping out of a cave somewhere.
 
Molts look just like your shrimp, sometimes with color, sometimes totally clear. Its common for them to molt shortly after adding them to our tanks :)
I just found 3 molts myself this morning! It seems like all my shrimp molt together. Yesterday I pulled the other 2 out. Its quite interesting! And like jenjen said, they lay low after with a little bit of peaking here and there lol
 
If it is just skeleton and see nothing meaty with it, then i would say its a molt. Likes others have said, dont be surprised if he goes into hiding for a few days until the new skeleton hardens up.
 
ok when i got home tonight i have confirmed it was a molt as my fire shrimp is very active in the tank. i was so worried i wasted 50.00 on that thing i was sick all day lol.

yea this thing looked just like the shrimp it was red thats y i was worried. thanks for your help guys. what should i do with the old exo? leave it in or take it out?
 
I've got the same scenario going on EXCEPT I've got 3 bumblebee snails in my tank that were all hanging out around the old exoskeleton of my fire shrimp all day yesterday.

My tank is only 14g with no real caves except for one LR that's like a "sponge" with holes that I think must be too small for the shrimp to fit in.

Is it possible the bumblebee snails made a snack out of him as he was molting?
 
If there is no place for the shrimp to hide, then I would have to say yes. Sorry :sad1:
The bumblebee is a carnivore, so that would had been a wonderful dinner for them. They also will eat other snails and hermits if they get the chance.
 
Yeah I think I'm taking the bumblebees out and bringing them back to the LFS this weekend. Then I'm going to redo my aquascape by adding some dry rock and make some caves/coves in there before I attempt another fire shrimp.
 
You're not alone. We've all done it one way or another :(
I bought 3 cleaner shrimp just to have them all eaten by my former diana hogfish and blue indigo hamlet. So what I do? The next day I went and got another bigger cleaner shrimp just to have him eaten a few days later! :lmao: duh!!
 
Changes in the shrimp's environment will trigger a molt. Even water changes can trigger this. What you've described is exactly what a molt looks like. Here's another example. I awoke to this a few days ago.

4629745258_6c20332590_b.jpg
 
I have a banded coral shrimp and a scarlet cleaner and both molt on a 2-3 month cycle. I would characterize it as waking up in the morning and finding shrimp suits draped over a rock like the subjects in a Salvador Dali painting. Sit back and enjoy their personalities but make sure you have no predators large enough to cause them trouble.
Marty
 
I have a SCS and a Fire Shrimp. The scarlet molts like 2 times a month, same with the fire shrimp. But for the first time, he molted last night and I cant get to the molt peices that he left behind and it looks like my spider crab got to it and ripped it to shreds. Is it okay to leave in there or is it worth it to move the rocks and pull the peices out?
 
The first time mine did that I thought it was dead. Crabs leave behind an exoskeleton that looks just like the crab hard to tell
 
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