Molting shrimp?

[scooby]

Ok this is a bit of a silly question. I just brought home a week ago a peppermint shrimp (yes just one lonely fella). Today ontop of one of the LR I found this transparent skin. Just the upper body and antenna (if that's the right word for it). It looks so cool, but I can't find the little guy.

Is this normal and if so how often? Will he be ok and is there anything special I should be doing for him? What should I do with the remains (shell shed)? Will it just break off or should I take it out?

Sorry for all the questions.

[tang_man_montreal]

It is normal for shrimp and crabs to go into "hiding" after shedding their exo-skeletons.

This process, called molting, leaves them with a very fragile "new skin" in which for that reason, they will hide for several days to harden it up.

[Toooloud]

agree'd ,

My Peppermints do it about once a month..

[scooby]

Should I remove the "molt" or leave it in the tank?

The kids are laughing at the site of it. I told them the clowns scared the skin of it (something they would see in a cartoon or something). Later I explained the whole, molting practice and what I figured to be the reasoning behind it.

[Toooloud]

If you can fish it out , you can do so.. usally i cant get mine out so it gets consumed by somthing in the tank

[venkiw]

My cleaner shrimp did the same thing I thought it was gone. But a few days later he was back when I started feeding. This morning I swa another skin and decided to read about it. Thanks for all the info now I can rest peacefully

Venki

[Toutouche]

Ideally,
You should leave the skin in the tank. From what I've read they will often consume some of it and get some calcium from it to help them build their new one. I don't know if that's accurate but I've always left them in and they disappear somewhere.