why do shrimps discard their shells?

[ocean]

i have 2 Cleaner shrimps & i have noticed twice there were discarded empty shells on the sandbed.

why do shrimps do that? they outlive their shells?

how often do they do that?

any special care to note?

[aStRoBo|]

wad i read on the book they called it exoskeleton.. and they mention it's safe not to remove the shell,but if u wan also can remove..they remove to repair their spoilt legs,arms and wad so ever. correct me if i'm wrong.

[FuEl]

Exoskeletons can't grow. They are dead. So once the armor becomes too tight, they form another soft copy below their exoskeleton before moulting. Once the old exoskeleton comes off, the new one conforms to the larger size of the body before hardening.

[[d]3v|L]

The process is also known as molting. Dosing Iodide may help in regular molting.(read from somewhere)

[Volitan]

Do lobsters molt too?

[Achilles Tang]

All crustaceans molt.

[Dispar_Anthias]

Yes lobster left over shell is nice, can keep for collection... And each time it molt, you can notice the shell getting bigger

[Tanky®]

Is a proess of growing..

Normally once in a mth or two

[blacknails]

And as for cleaner shrimp.. Everytime they molt, they actually change their gender!!

[jas_soh]

And as for cleaner shrimp.. Everytime they molt, they actually change their gender!!

confirm???

how do one tell the gender of a cleaner shrimp btw?????

[Yellowbelly]

confirm???

how do one tell the gender of a cleaner shrimp btw?????

I want to know too, my shrimp has shed it shells at last count 3 times already.....by the way, how big can it grow ?

[blacknails]

Quite confirm.. I read about this some time ago and something I notice is that everytime one of my cleaner shrimps molt, it would mate with my other shrimp..

You can know which one is female from the presence of green eggs you can see at the tummy area.. (Of course you need to have 2 or more shrimps) Cleaner shrimps mate very often in tanks but the fry is like impossible to raise.. Any tips to raise them can let me know? I've seen my baby shrimps get sucked into my filter and die countless times.. Sad..

And yeah cleaner shrimps can grow to be really rather big actually.. I've kept mine for like almost 2 years and they are pretty huge (for cleaner shrimps).

[shetland]

cleaner shrimp change gender?

btw do they need to have any ###### difference to mate.. i only got two CS. both also have eggs.