Pancheros the Bamboo Shrimp Sheds His Skin!

So now that we have had our aquarium stocked with fish for, oh, about a week, Pancheros has decided that he is ready to shed his skin!! I wish I had gotten some pictures as it was happening but I was so surprised by what I saw I just watched, dumbfounded.

After looking into it, apparently they get a new skin every month or so, so it is really not as rare as I thought it was, but I am still excited that I got to watch on his very first skin shedding. I think the interesting part probably lasted only about a minute or two, so I was definitely looking at the exact right time. Here are some pictures of my shrimp just doing what comes natural to him. Bear with me I am still learning how to photograph an aquarium!

pancheros poses with his old wardrobe

ahh, that feels better

here pancheros is disconnecting the exoskeleton/skin thing

I like to think that he was so relieved that he actually had a cool aquarium to live in, he was ready and felt safe enough to take on life in a new skin, but I feel like this is wishful thinking on my part. He seems happy though :)

He spent the next several hours stretching in his new skin. It almost seemed like he had to fold out all his new parts and get them all stretched and ready for use. He is also able to crawl all over the log much easier now. Probably hard to move around in a crusty old, worn out shell of a skin.