Molting?

[Malikta]

I freed 4 shrimp from my ecosphere & moved them to a 1/2 gallon tank. Almost immediately one molted, I saw the "ghost shrimp". I purchased 10 from petshrimp.com and I kept those in a separate tank as they seemed more active/in your face than my sad/starving ecosphere guys. I didn't want to shock them. Of the 10 I purchased, 1 molted within a week or so.

I gave both shrimp families tanks, gravel/sand, hiding places, macroalgae & moss balls.

I then setup a 2.5 gallon cylinder aquarium with live plants and decided to put all 14 shrimp together. I have 4 macroalgae, 3 mossballs and 2-3 dwarf hairgrass plants. I have a lava rock coming, but no hiding places in this tank yet.

They bounced back from the move quite well and they seem to really like the circle shape. They will swim around forever and they seem happy. I feed them 1/4 of a fish food flake and 2-3 weeks later a mini shrimp pellet. I have had 3 supershrimp molt just days after. Today while I was working I noticed a female fall (I see her egg sac on her back), back facing down all the way to the gravel/sand - I thought she was dying, the movement was so unusual. Upon closer inspection, she was coming out of her skin. I saw most of it come off but she keep convulsing until she got it all off. Is this typical behavior? Although I've had almost half my population molt, I've never witnessed it, I just find the "ghost shrimp" afterwards. TIA!

[Nellyville41]

Nice! Keep up the good work and post pics if you can. I would however remove the live plants. They’ll slowly die off and poison the water.

[Varanus]

I've never seen these shrimp molt but have seen some other species do it, and convulsing to remove the old exoskeleton is pretty normal. Molting problems should be pretty obvious, the physical signs including not being able to get out of the old skin, and/or the new skin ending up deformed or damaged. Never seen such a problem with the supershrimp.

[Malikta]

Nice! Keep up the good work and post pics if you can. I would however remove the live plants. They’ll slowly die off and poison the water.

Really? The dwarf hairgrass are doing very well, I did tiny plugs. The tape grass is having a harder adjustment but is holding its own. I was hoping to create more of a brackish pond environment as well as add oxygen. The shrimp seem to like the plants a lot. I have aquarium tweezers and scissors to remove dead leaves.

Does anyone else agree that live plants will cause issues for the shrimp?

[Malikta]

I've never seen these shrimp molt but have seen some other species do it, and convulsing to remove the old exoskeleton is pretty normal. Molting problems should be pretty obvious, the physical signs including not being able to get out of the old skin, and/or the new skin ending up deformed or damaged. Never seen such a problem with the supershrimp.

Thank you!!!

[Varanus]

Really? The dwarf hairgrass are doing very well, I did tiny plugs. The tape grass is having a harder adjustment but is holding its own. I was hoping to create more of a brackish pond environment as well as add oxygen. The shrimp seem to like the plants a lot. I have aquarium tweezers and scissors to remove dead leaves.

One thing to keep in mind is these shrimp have very low oxygen needs, its why they have no need for any mechanical water aeration (and indeed dislike it). That you can remove dead plant parts is good, but it seems to me that you would still run of the risk of missing stuff that could decay and cause problems. Still, I know there are many here who would like to know how to keep more types of plants successfully with supershrimp. At the same time, as far as I can tell most who are really successful with these shrimp don't use plants (aside from the macroalgae and moss balls).

[Malikta]

Really? The dwarf hairgrass are doing very well, I did tiny plugs. The tape grass is having a harder adjustment but is holding its own. I was hoping to create more of a brackish pond environment as well as add oxygen. The shrimp seem to like the plants a lot. I have aquarium tweezers and scissors to remove dead leaves.

One thing to keep in mind is these shrimp have very low oxygen needs, its why they have no need for any mechanical water aeration (and indeed dislike it). That you can remove dead plant parts is good, but it seems to me that you would still run of the risk of missing stuff that could decay and cause problems. Still, I know there are many here who would like to know how to keep more types of plants successfully with supershrimp. At the same time, as far as I can tell most who are really successful with these shrimp don't use plants (aside from the macroalgae and moss balls).

Thank you for the input/info.

[Wendy]

I never seen my Opae's molting process. That's so lucky! I would suggest to remove the plant too.

[Malikta]

I ended up removing the tapegrass - it seemed like it was going to have leaves dying off continually until it adjusted to brackish water.

I left the 2 small plugs of dwarf hairgrass, they are so thin and doing well. Plus the shrimp really loved the plants.

[roygbiv]

I know this is an older thread, but it's touching on a question I have.

I've also recently opened an Ecosphere and freed the four Opae into their own 1/4-gallon tank, while I have a separate, 3/4-gallon tank for 10 I purchased from Petshrimp.com. But, to get back to my question...

One of the four from the Ecosphere seems to be having a lot of problems after molting. I noticed while it was still in the Ecosphere, that it would frequently shoot to the surface and then drop back to the bottom on its back. At first I thought, "Oh well, it's having some fun." But then I realized that its front legs seem to be caught in its molted skin. Its tail and head are free, but it is clearly struggling to get out of its old skin.

This was one of the things that prompted me to crack open the Ecosphere when I did.

It's been almost a week, and today I returned after three days away to find that shrimp just lying on the gravel on its back. I assumed it was dead, as it didn't move, even when I slowly rotated the tank to get a better look. Then, after about five minutes, I looked back and noticed it had moved. It was clinging to a small thread of microalgae, upside down at the bottom. It's confusing because it seems so distressed, unable to get free of its skin, but its shell is a deep red and healthy looking. It does get around the tank, and it's been like this at least two weeks and managed to survive.

My question is: Should I do anything?

I have not added any food to either tank, as the shrimp otherwise seem very happy and active, and there's plenty of surface area for bacterial growth on the lava rock I've used in both tanks. But I wonder if dropping a small bit of food pellet near this particular shrimp might give it a chance to get some food, get some extra energy, and finally get out of its skin.

Will the skin eventually break down? I thought about attempting to help break it up with some sort of probe, but I figure I'd be more likely to damage the shrimp.

Any suggestions?

[roygbiv]

Well...After fretting over it for days, and then coming back to the office following the holiday, I'm happy to say that it seems like all four shrimp are now doing well, and it seems like the issue with the molting has resolved.

[Nellyville41]

Glad you didn’t do anything. These guys are pretty hearty creatures and they tolerate a lot. They’ll be fine. I’ve seen mine moly before and it can be a little of a struggle at the very end.

[Mustafa]

Sometimes molting does not go as smoothly as usual and the molt can still be stuck to the shrimp for a while. Also, right after the molt the shrimp are so soft that they can't even stand upright. Whatever happens in the future, never try to drop food in there to help the shrimp with some additional energy. There is plenty of "food" in there already, and the additional food will most likely just cause problems down the line.