Archivarium 2004

[LOgan SLOgan]

a few weeks ago my rock shrimp has shedded. his fan hands look not as fine as they used to be. it looks like they have stray hairs on them but they open but not as efectively as before. hes was still feeding and healthy and isnt skinny.
has this happened to you?

[Pi]

Hm, mine has only molted once thus far, and I didn't notice any particular difference in his fans. Do you have a picture?

pi

[LOgan SLOgan]

sorry I'm afraid I don't and they would be to bluury anyway but I could give you a better discription and the behavior first week he wouldnt touch the ground(probly because the shell hardening) hides often one of his antenae is a little shorter because a fish mistacedit as food or minor agression then he feeds a few days later the hairs still look tangled and stray then he starts hiding more and the hairs they looked... kind of waxy looking and kind of had a cleer substance on them but they still open. I heard that if the shrimp uses the protein or calcium in or somthing, that they get weaker
Could that be because of this?

[Pi]

I'm not sure what you mean, you aren't sure if your shrimp had enough protein or calcium to form a new shell? Perhaps, thouh most food should provide enough of those things. I can say that after my shrimp molted he hid for less than a day, and was active very quickly afterwards. Sometimes shrimp molt when water parameters are off, can you tell us your parameters (pH, ammonia, nitrite are the most important) and this sounds a lot like a water parameter issue, so I would like to rule that out first.

In short:
Water parameters?
What do you feed?
Tanksize/tankmates?

Pi

[benedictj]