one "arm" after molting

[Mephistopheles]

My Coral Banded Shrimp (Harold) molted last night. Now, one time he lost one of his little legs (for walking) during the normal course of living, but it grew back after he molted. This time, he was fully intact (as far as I know) but after the molting he has lost one of his really big pincher claws. Is this a syptom or poor living conditions or is it just something that happens sometimes. More importantly, will it grow back and if so how can I encourage that? I don't want him to starve trying to collect food with just one big pincher arm.

I didn't have time to run tests this morning (I do that after work). But I can tell you that he is in a 30 gallon cube with a blue devil and a black ocellaris clownfish. The only aggression that exists is when Harold gets too close to the cownfish's territory, but Harold is almost always the one doing the bullying in such instances. There's maybe 10 lbs of LR so far.

 

[roka64]

Maybe the clown or damsel hit him while he was molting.....

 

[Mephistopheles]

will it grow back on the next molt?

 

[roka64]

I'm not sure about claws, I have heard legs will, maybe some one else w/more experience will know...

 

[StripesTheEel]

My cbs lost one of his pincers recently also. As far as I can tell, there is another small appendage growing back but its hard to tell at this stage.

 

[Mephistopheles]

Well that's hopeful. I look for that on Harold.

What's weird to me is that he seems to have lost it during the molt. Generally this is when appendages are grown. I'm concerned that maybe he is not healthy. The possibility exists that he lost it after he had already molted, but then I think I would see it laying around somewhere.

 

[tecwzrd]

I came home two days ago to find my CBS crawling over the lr missing its left arm with the claw. I had feed 3 small fingernail sized pieces of raw shrimp to the brittle star fish, hermits, and all my shrimp that morning and all seemed to be sharing nicely.

He had molted about a week ago and even just after molting was in full view all the time. It’s about 2 1/2” in body length and about 4+” fully extended so nobody in the tank messes with him.

The larger claws are used primarily just for holding food while the smaller legs/claws stuff its mouth. After 2 days he is still eating very well and doesn’t seem affected by the lost of one of his claws.

I’m still not sure how/when he lost his arm but I suspect he had a wrestling match with the brittle star fish as they sometime do when going after the same piece of shrimp. My brittle is 10” and is quite fast/strong.

I think your CBS will be just fine as mine will. I have read up on them and from what I’ve gathered the larger arms usually don’t grow back completely

 

[Mephistopheles]

Well that's unfortunate, he always looked so tough.

 

[tecwzrd]

I think mine acts even tougher without it I do miss seeing him wildly wave his arms at anything that came near him though. He’s down one arm but defiantly still “king of the tank”.

 

[faerykisses]

My CBS also lost an arm, a small one a while back. After one molting it was just a little stub, but after two moltings its completly back to normal. It grew back to normal size and seems to be functioning fine. Good luck!!!

 

[seaham358]

liek the others said, it will grow back over time.... I have heard that shrimp can sometimes die during a molt is the shell gets stuck on..

 

[tecwzrd]

faerykisses, I have had shrimp grow back smaller legs/arms but have yet to see a CBS grow back the largest arm/claw if broken off. I hope you guys are right though, I’ll report back in about 4 months with an update on the progress.

 

[Mephistopheles]

So the general consesus is that this is not my fault? I think that's what I'm getting. Just making sure that this isn't the syptom of some deficiency of something.

 

[roka64]

It's funny, my fire shrimp goes out for a swim and the damsels love to pick at his antenna, but my cleaner (who I still haven't seen clean, by the way), they just leave him alone...You suppose they know he is their cleaning (on strike right now) friend?

 

[tecwzrd]

**UPDATE** Well it’s been a little over two weeks since my CBS lost it’s arm and it molted last week (after just molting a week before that) and had a small ¼” nub where it’s arm was. I was kind of shocked but was hopeful.

Last night it molted again (3 times in the last month!) and now its full arm is back working perfectly although it’s slightly smaller then the other arm!

This is the 2nd CBS I have owned and I have seen regeneration with other smaller legs but wouldn’t have thought that it could regenerate such a huge part of its body in such a short time span.

I hope the rest of you armless shrimp have similar results

 

[roka64]

Yay, for your CBS!!!