Petshrimp.com Discussion Forum

I have this shrimp that is hanging upside down on a plant for about 12 hours. I thought it was molting at first, but now I think it is dead. I also had a red cherry laying on the side yesterday, and in the morning it was gone. I think that one got eaten at night.

All of our shrimp go into hiding when they molt because they are very vulnerable during the shedding. Make sure your tank has enough calcium and iodine.

Eaten by what? Do you have predators in your tank? A shrimp lying on the side is not normal behavior and has nothing to do with molting. The molting act itself only takes a second...they literally jump out of their skin. If your shrimp was just lying there...then it is probably about to die or dead.

Mustafa

Eaten by other shrimps. One of my dead shrimps had fungus on it. Anyone know why fungus appeared?

bigheadtai wrote:One of my dead shrimps had fungus on it. Anyone know why fungus appeared?

Part of the natural decay process.

51Cornell wrote:Make sure your tank has enough calcium and iodine.

How do we check that we HAVE enough calcium or iodine in the tank?

1. Snails?
2. How often the shrimps molt?

I wondered why my shrimps were not molting for weeks now... So i decided to add a seasell in the tank... Looks like it kinda worked... Coz when i put it in... Some shrimps went over to grave on it, at first i thought tis was normal... It always happens when i put something new in the tank... So after some time i went to look at my tank again... The was a shell!! A shrimp has molted.

My question: Is tis jus conincidence or did the shrimp "eat" the shell for calcium and molt?

Will that small sea shell affect the Ph of my tank??
Size of seashell is about 1 and a half times an adult Red Cherry Shrimp.

Thanks for all the info, I'm sure it will be beneficial to every1 out there. And pardon the quantity of my questions

I guess what you are asking is, "how much shell is enough ?"

Well, I always use a kH test kit.
This way you don't have to guess.

My Red Cherry shrimp's tank has a kh = 5.

HG

from my understanding, adding seashell/ crushed coral will likely raise your pH initially, but won't make it fluctuate (which is more of a concern).

If you noticed your red cherries molting again then see how they do with the shell in. If they take a while to molt again look at the food supply available to them (are they sitting down and 'grazing' for long periods or are they swimming around more often than not looking for food?)