Cleaner Shrimp broken antennae.

[EpisodeMnH]

I noticed that both my Cleaner Shrimp and my Fire Shrimp both have some broken antennae. The Cleaner has 2 that are like this and the Fire has 1. Nothing severe, the affected ones are about a half inch to 3/4 inch shorter than normal.

This has happened once before, the Cleaner had 1 short antenna. When I did my research at the time, I saw that too high of iodine levels could cause bad molts, and at the time I was dosing iodine weekly, so I immediately stopped. That fixed the problem and I didn’t have any more bad molts until now.

Since I’m no longer dosing iodine, what are some other causes of bad molts? They otherwise seem as healthy, active, and hungry as ever, but regardless I want to correct whatever may be causing this.

 

[Sharkbait19]

Can you post your parameters? Shrimp are very sensitive to anything slightly off and it seems that the antennae could be indications of failed molts.

 

[Uncle99]

Too low iodine.
Should be kept 0.03-0.06ppm
Also bad for leathers and Gorgonians.
I’d use iodide when dosing, a bit more forgiving.

 

[Reef.]

Other fish can bite them off if they get too close, my cleaner has learnt where it can go in the tank without getting them bitten off.

I doubt it has anything to do with a bad molt.