First time eye witness

[Dch48]

I have been seeing shed shells with regularity. They usually are seen hanging on the sea fan and they don't last long before being consumed. Today, I moved my largest piece of macroalgae back to where I like it to be since somehow it had moved in front of the lava rock and was blocking view of the tunnel through it. Soon after doing that, I saw what first looked like 2 shrimp on the side of the macroalgae either fighting or mating. A closer look showed it to be a shrimp emerging from it's shell. It gave one last flick of it's tail and was free, leaving the old clear shell behind. It acted groggy for a minute or two and seemed disoriented. It was twitching and seemed to have trouble swimming. After 5 minutes or less, it had resumed regular activities and was swimming and grazing like the others. I had to watch it constantly to be sure I was looking at the right one. The only thing I noticed different about it was that it's feelers were considerably shorter than the other shrimp's. Some of them have feelers as long as their body. This guy's were like stubs in comparison. I guess those grow out gradually after a molt.

[Varanus]

Can't say I've ever seen that kind of change in feeler length happen, usually the feelers should be the same size as before or longer (if the crustacean is growing). It's possible that the feelers were damaged during the molt (i.e. got stuck in the old shell and torn off). That can happen sometimes, but provided the shrimp can still feed and move about it should regenerate when it next molts (assuming these shrimp regenerate the way crayfish and such do).