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Let's talk about molting


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Here is the steps of molting for aquacultured shrimp http://www.aquaculture.ugent.be/Education/coursematerial/online%20courses/shrimp-cd/bio/moultb.htm

Talking about heaters and temp, do you think the warmer the tank the easier the shell will come off (assuming all parameters are ok)?

Hey Shrimpo

I kind of waiting to hear others....

 

As I know that temperatures are cold they grow more slowly, and breeding is reduced or even stop. In warmer temps or temps are rising too quickly can activate the organism  so much that the shrimps are growing too fast and they might die as they cannot adapt their molting process as quickly. Also their color starts fading away.

I had experienced in setting between 72-75 deg. I found my shrimps are doing better with 74-75 deg in term of health.color and breeding.

 

Keep in mind what is working for me may/may not working for othes. When playing with temps/or other parameters always do it slowly. It gives me time to validate the results and record it.

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I think it depends on the specie itself, like Sulawesi Cardinals temp requirement is higher than most other species, so when people having issues with molting the problem is not only the GH value.

Yes! Sulawesi has different parameters. I am on soft water Taiwan bees and Crystal bees.

Yes molting issue causing more than one factor : too  much protein, gh, temp..ect

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Really not much to share that isn't out there- and to be honest, my techniques won't work for everyone. My best advice is that a Shrimper in the US has to listen to and read opinions on shrimping, then draw your own judgements from that according to what works for you.

As an example, I've had very good breeding between 300-400 TDS. This year I decided to do differently and drop to 150-200TDS. Also I pulled all my heaters and am letting the environment change at will. Are these good ideas? Yes and no. They work for some shrimpers, and not for other shrimpers. Heck, this may not work at all for me- but, I'm always experimenting and trying new things to increase my knowledge and husbandry. :)

all my tanks don't have heaters and I just let them go. I keep,the TDS around 130-150 it,is easier to let them go.

-Chris

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In my case the heater made my temp unstable. . It stays within a degree without. ..

Derek

that's what happens to me I just,let them go.

-Chris

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  • 1 month later...

When I last heavily researched shrimp, I saw that most of the people who argued for using iodide supplementation were keeping unknown species of ghost shrimp (likely Palaemonetes but unconfirmed as positive ID was impossible). These people would then say that all shrimp needed iodide supplements to molt properly. Other people who had different shrimp would cite their experiences as proof that no shrimp needed iodide supplementation to molt properly.

I concluded that humans are stupid and that the answer is unknown, although the requirements are most likely species specific.

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This is an interesting topic and I've had many dicussions on this with many people. I'll express my view on this, right or wrong.

To start off, this is my belief --  A successful molt requires way more than just calcium (GH).

About molting itself:
Molting is a very complex process a shrimp has to go through. The exoskeleton of a shrimp consists of many layers. Molting is the process of the outter layers (the empty shell you see eventually) separating from the inner ones (which stay). This is necessary as the outter layers provide protection to the shrimps, they are hard and don't grow. So a shrimp has to get rid of it when the body has out-grown it. The shrimps have to produce something more or less to disovle the bound between the inner and outter layers to get rid of the old clothes (the new outter layers have to be ready to replace the old).

So, in simple terms, the requirements are :

  • New outter layers have to be ready. (shrimps need to have enough nutritions for this, calcium AND chitin)
  • Shrimp needs to be able to produce enough disolvant to take off the old outter layers. (balanced food intake is important)
  • Shrimp needs to be healthy enough to endure this painful process that gives it lots of stress. (overal health condition)

 

Timing:

A shrimp will molt when it needs to and when it's ready. As long as they have balanced food intake and a good environment, this should not be an issue. (btw: I believe most of the calcium/chitin comes from food intake, not from the water) This is in their nature to do it, give them a good environment and good food, let them do the work, not you.

An exception is environment stimulations to the timing. A shrimp will molt when certain changes happen from the environment. The most common cases are water change and use of breeding aids (basically, high concentration of chitin). They need to do this to be ready to breed at the same time as other shrimps. This is easily understood in the wild. After the rain, shrimps would want to molt and mate at the same time so their babies are amongst the babies from other shrimps. This is because they are at the  bottom of the food chain, they have a better chance to survive in numbers.

 

All this said, and the fact that people can have stable and desired GH level and still get molting issue, I think a good molt requires a good stable environment and food intake. it's their overall health condition that determines the molt. GH, PH, ... etc are all parts of the picture, but you need to look at the larger picture to figure the cause of a failed molt.

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^Well said, randy.

 

It IS a complicated process, one that I have no shame in saying I don't fully understand. The thought process behind us dosing iodide is pretty much summed up by that...

1) It doesn't seem to hurt.

2) We are one of those people that cite our experience having never seen a bad molt in our tanks as evidence that maybe they do need it, but it's also possible that we have been lucky. We also have extremely hard water.

So we figure, why not? If they need it- good. It's there. If they don't- oh well. It's not holding them back. *shrug* Not exactly scientific, but it works for us.

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^Well said, randy.

 

It IS a complicated process, one that I have no shame in saying I don't fully understand. The thought process behind us dosing iodide is pretty much summed up by that...

1) It doesn't seem to hurt.

2) We are one of those people that cite our experience having never seen a bad molt in our tanks as evidence that maybe they do need it, but it's also possible that we have been lucky. We also have extremely hard water.

So we figure, why not? If they need it- good. It's there. If they don't- oh well. It's not holding them back. *shrug* Not exactly scientific, but it works for us.

 

Adding iodide was thought to be necessary in the early stage of bee shrimp keeping maybe 15 years ago, then people stopped it. I don't do it just because I am too lazy to find the source ;-) IIt is an important trace for shrimps but maybe they get enough from the food intake as some algaes contain this.

 

I wouldn't mind trying it though in a few tanks though.

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  • 2 weeks later...

So what about the clear horizontal line behind the head?  (You knew someone would start that. LOL)

 

I thought this indicates shrimp is ready to molt.

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