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LonghornReefer

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I have a question. I have googled around and received a range of mixed answers to my question. Would like to get some feedback from fellow ARC members.

Do you leave the exoskeleton that your shrimp leaves behind in your tank or take them out?

Does it mess your parameters if you leave it in? Nano tanks or Large tanks?

I understand depending on the size and other things it could be impossible to take out.

Thanks ARC!

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Leave it unless it's from a big hermit crab. Those are solid enough I can remove them, dry them out and leave them on the top of someones computer monitor or TV. grin.png

I like that idea. Going to have to use that.

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I read when I first got into the hobby to leave them because they will eat it, and the minerals in the molt help the invert to reharden. I observed an emerald crab once eating a hermit crab that I thought he had murdered, only to find the hermit crab again later that day.

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I know in freshwater shrimp.....which i have lots....the shells are eaten by the shrimp for food. I would think its the same for the saltwater ones. Of course if its in danger of clogging up a pump i would remove it as well. Other i dont believe it will harm anything to leave it.

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I never remove mine and they seem to break down over time or wind up in some dead dark cave under the rocks. I HAVE found hermit crab fragments and peppermint shrimp molts tangled up in the needle wheel of the skimmer when I clean it out. I suspect most often they wind up in a powerhead and get ground up and sprayed around the tank to break down or get consumed. Honestly, the only dead things I ever remove are fish carcasses, which has only ever been twice since Ive gotten into the hobby. Anything else gets eaten to fast for me to even catch. I even added a mantis shrimp to my refugium a couple months ago, never heard a clicking sound, never have seen him since, I assume he died from possibly too fast of acclimation, but havent noticed any funky parameter swings due to it

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