Cantusaurus

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I recently noticed when feeding that my tiger pistol shrimp lost his large front claws! :( Prior to the pincher loss, he normal and healthy, he would always hide in the burrow and would occasionally leave with the Watchman Goby, especially when feeding. I was feeding and he wouldn't completely leave the burrow, just barely out of the entrance to gather some food. I noticed both large claws were not there :(
I'm thinking it was some sort of molting issue? I don't think anything in my tank messed with him, I don't have any dangerous inverts or large fish. I'm hoping they'll grow back soon/quickly, I know lost limbs on shrimps and crabs grow back pretty fast, but will that be the same for the large pinchers/claws? I've heard that iodine really helps with them getting great molts, and possibly my tank didn't have a good amount of it.
Should I dose a bit of iodine? Or should I take any other actions. Other than the claw loss he seems relatively fine, just looks very strange/different without the big claws. The Watchman Goby in my tank seems to be protecting the pistol shrimp way more carefully lately, which is great to see, and honestly makes me feel better, and more optimistic about the situation :)
If anyone has any other opinions or theories about this or how it happened, please let me know :)
 

Creggers

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My understanding of Iodine is that it can increase the frequency of the molts, so I'm not sure you need to add that. I'd wait for someone else to chime in but I'd hold off for now :)
 

PicassoClown04

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Iodine helps the molt come off easier. It’s possible that the front claws became stuck in his molt and they were lost with the molt :( they should grow back, I have had hermits lose their large claws because of molts and they were back within a month. Glad your YWG is taking care of it!
 
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Cantusaurus

Cantusaurus

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Oh ok, that makes sense, and thank you! That's good to hear. The shrimp actually seems normal today, I'm so surprised how he is still moving sand around when cleaning up their burrow. I actually bought some a small iodine additive just in case, but I'll be sure to just add a little.
 

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