Got bored and made a molt mount of my bamboo shrimp

[Dbigfish]

Got bored and made a molt mount of my bamboo shrimp. This was my first attempt I may try again now that my shrim is starting to develop more vivid patternings

 

[Oohitsae]

Wow! That's awesome. I've never seen that done before. Looks like it'd be pretty time consuming, how long did it take?

 

[Dbigfish]

All said and done about 15 or 20 minutes of actually working with the molt and another 20 just letting it dry

 

[Dbigfish]

I really want to do a crayfish next because they seem much easier to work with and I could pose one in a more life like position just because of their body shape.

 

[Oohitsae]

Yeah, a crayfish sounds like a good idea! I'd like to try one sometime.

 

[Tetra1990]

Bad to the bone.

 

[Dbigfish]

Well like I said its pretty easy if you want to know how I went about doing it

 

[bettaowner]

Neat mount

 

[Craw Chief]

Very Cool! I'd love to try that sometime. Are there any kind of chemical preservatives you need to use or anything like that?

 

[azmodan]

Looks awesome! Sorry but I'm unfamiliar with this particular craft... Can you talk a bit of how you did it?

 

[Dbigfish]

Basically I just thought I would be a cool thing to do one day so when my bamboo shrimp molted I put the shell in a cup but the cup in the freezer and went out and got some borax from Walmart. It just a big box the says borax it's a household cleaning agent in powder form and costs like 3.50$ I thawed out the shrimpcycle and brought 2 cups of water to a simmer then added the shell along with a half cup of borax. You don't want to boil the shell because the violent water may break off some of the more delicate parts. After simmering for a few minutes take out the shell and use a tooth pick to pose it anyway you want it then just let it sit and dry. After that you want to have some sort of protective covering for it. I used an old paper clip container but something like a shadow box would be ideal. A dab of super glue on the tail will keep it from going anywhere

 

[Oohitsae]

You're right! That doesn't sound too complicated at all. I'm sure it'll take a couple tries for me though.
Thanks for the directions, I'll definitely have to try it when I get some more free time