Petshrimp.com Discussion Forum

Hi, I've joined the forum as my armoured shrimp was purchased on Tuesday and now he appears to be changing colour (very light pink). I've read online that it could mean he's ready for a moult (sorry if that's not the correct term) or that he could be poorly. I've taken the water to be tested just in case, and apart from a slight PH issue (5.5) there was no other issues and I've added PH buffer since then. He has several hiding places, moss balls, there are no live plants in there, just silk ones. He was out and eating last night, but he tends to hide during the day. I've been feeding him 'Hikari tropical shrimp cuisine', but I'm not really sure how much he will eat, so he's had a tiny pinch twice a day.
Basically my question is, is there any way to tell if his colour change is due to illness or an oncoming moult? It's a very subtle tint of pink, but he was quite blueish in colour before.

BB glad to have you here on the forum. How about a picture of your Armoured shrimp.

Thanks, I will certainly try to add a photo, but I'm not very computer savy so it may not work.

This was him two days ago, under his favourite hiding place.


And this was him this morning




Hopefully you can see how blue he was originally, compared to the light shade of pink he seems to be changing to.

He seems like a large shrimp. How long is he? Does he have pointy claws?

He is only small still for an armoured shrimp, around 1.5 -2 inches, but apparently they can grow up to 10 inches. He does seem to have a little point on the end of his claw. He's very shy and hides a lot of the time but he's lovely to watch when I catch him coming out for a feed. I wasn't told a lot about his care when I bought him, other than he was an armoured shrimp and he would be able to live peacefully with my Fighting fish when he arrives.