Concerns with my banded coral shrimp

[AquasKy]

Hi all this is my first post on here, don’t know if I posted it in the right place or not but I’ve had my coral banded shrimp for four or five months now with no issues. Healthy molts and everything. Today when I peeked in at him, I noticed that he had either molted over the night or before I saw him in the early morning hours. The thing I noticed which has never happened before is his smaller arms are bent near the joint, like they look broken, and he can’t bring them to his mouth or clean himself properly. I can’t say if he is acting lethargic as he usually does keep to his cave during the day and come out to scavenge and such once the lights go out. I dropped a couple pellets in to see if I could draw him out which did work, he moves fine but as I feared, he can’t pick up food or bring it to his mouth with his little arms, only his big claw arms which drops the food before he gets it to his mouth. My water parameters are all within the ranges, and other than some hairy mushroom coral, 7 lbs of live rock, his cave and a hermit that hitchhiked, the coral banded is alone in the tank. It’s 20g tall. I greatly appreciate any help anyone has to offer, if you have experienced this or just know more than I do. I really worry he will starve if he can’t get food to his mouth and I don’t want him to suffer.

 

[CoralB]

Is he ok now?

 

[AquasKy]

Is he ok now?

I have since turned the power head off and turned down the flow on the filter, his three arms are still bent and he isn’t using them to pick anything up. I thawed out some brine shrimp (didn’t realize I was out of mysis) and dropped it in front of him, he seemed able to use his one good arm to feed himself. He is walking around his cave and hanging, coming out occasionally to pick at the little bit of brine left (didn’t want to take it out right away since he seems to be nibbling at it a little at a time). I did notice some yellowing to him that wasn’t there before, however, overall he seems okay. I’m still worried and keeping a close eye on him. Here is a couple pictures of him from an hour or so ago.

 

[MaxTremors]

It’ll be fine, they can feed themselves with any of their legs. If there is a problem with some of its legs, they’ll get fixed the next time it molta (in the meantime, if they’re that messed up, they’ll just fall off). Mine is kind of a terrorist, and I recently tried to catch it to rehome it, and while trying to catch it, both of its big claws/pincers fell off (was never able to catch it). Two weeks later it molted and he had new pincers. My point is that they’re resilient, yours will figure out how to feed itself and will molt in no time.

 

[CoralB]

I’ve had coral banded shrimp a couple times in the past but had to get rid of them / trade them as they were killing my other shrimp in the tank but from what I see it looks normal . He is eating or he dies . Mine also would feed with their large claw . Try spot feeding him at night tonight with a very dim or red light as mine would feed mostly at night due in fact that that’s when the bristle worms would come out . If nothing else was in the tank when he molted I couldn’t see how he would break his arm let alone three . Is your parameters in check , have they been in check . If calcium is low it could adversely affect molting , is the hermit crab big enough to have attacked him while molting?

 

[AquasKy]

I’ve had coral banded shrimp a couple times in the past but had to get rid of them / trade them as they were killing my other shrimp in the tank but from what I see it looks normal . He is eating or he dies . Mine also would feed with their large claw . Try spot feeding him at night tonight with a very dim or red light as mine would feed mostly at night due in fact that that’s when the bristle worms would come out . If nothing else was in the tank when he molted I couldn’t see how he would break his arm let alone three . Is your parameters in check , have they been in check . If calcium is low it could adversely affect molting , is the hermit crab big enough to have attacked him while molting?

When I checked them this morning:
pH- 8.2
Ammonia - 0.25 (that went up from yesterday when I posted)
Calcium - 490
Nitrite - 0
Nitrates - 20
Kh - 196.9
Phosphate went up a smidge too now 0.25
Temp is sitting between 75-78

the hermit is really small, barely half an inch. While my shrimp is huge, I actually thought he was a female due to his size when he was given to me.