Odd deformity?

[VLad22]

Hi, 

I've had big colonies (200+) of RCS in the past but wouldn't call myself an expert. After 6 months I lost interest and didn't give them attention. I started again recently and noticed that one RCS appeared to have been injured in the netting process. The rostrum is missing, the antenna's are swept back and basically it looks like a snub nosed shrimp. After 12 hours in the new tank it stopped eating and I was waiting for the inevitable. 

However... it's since moulted (spelling?) which took 2 days as it couldn't free itself from the head section of the moult. Again, waiting for death... But today it's alive and managed to get rid of it's shell!

Soooo now I'm thinking, could this actually be a genetic defect? As it's survived 5 days now, in a new tank, and moulted? Anyone seen this kind of deformity before? If it's genetic I may want to cull it.

Sorry for the poor pics, I can't use my macro lens as it needs a billion lumens and the shrimp run away.

Thanks!

Tank info; planted, 3 months old, 0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrites, 0 Nitrates (ish), PH 7.4-7.6, 3 GH (working on this), 8 KH

 

Edited December 22, 2018 by VLad22
Added pics and tank info

[jayc]

That's a deformity for sure.

Do not let it breed.

[VLad22]

Thanks. I'd have thought it was physical damage had it not survived for a week & moulted.

[Mrnst7]

I would cull it also.

 

In that case I would not even put it in a cull tank. For the health of your future shrimp I would permanently remove it from all your shrimp tanks.

[Zoidburg]

It can be caused by a bad/failed molt. and may correct itself in time, or the shrimp might die before then.

[VLad22]

Cheers. I assume JayC also notice the carapace which is another reason this looks like a deformity (so the internet tells me).

 

In any case I haven't seen ol' snubby nose the shrimp since about two weeks after this post. I finally got a cull tank set up but haven't seen it. It's not died hidden away, and I've pulled out three dead shrimps which didn't look like above.

So it's either moulted and become happy or perished and I didn't notice it was this one I removed.