[MantaRay]

need some help here, the other day i came home, now i have a salt tank, fish-only, one tomato clownfish, one maroon (tomato) clownfish and one coral banded shrimp, now i came home and he was shedding his shell, and i watched, it was cool, it looked like he was "pulling" his new arms out (big pincers) but i could see the fish sort of startled him as they swam/jerked around the tank chasing eachother, i came back and found his shell floation around and i took it out and threw it out, i came back and looked at him and hes walkin around, with no arms! (no big pincers) it doesnt seem to mind. will he die? what the hecks goin on? help!

[Arctic Fox]

Everything I heard is that you should leave the shell in there for him to eat so he can get some of the calcium back that he lost when he shed his old shell.

About the pincers, If he can't defend himself and one of your fishes attaks him then yes, he will die, but if the fishes leave him alone he should grow new pincers.

[kevinpo]

They do not eat their shell Their new shell is soft for 24 hours or so. Before it hardens they can be more easily attacked by other tankmates. They do just fine without a arm or two but you should keep an eye out to see if any of its tankmates are picking on it. At the next molt it may not get one or both arms back. It may take a few molts to be fully restored.

HTH,
Kevin

[saltjunkie]

yeah, when i moved i had to net my sKrimps, one of my CB sKrimps got caught it in the net and it pulled one of his arms off.....
within a week or 2 it was back!