Newbie question on CRS molting

[fxbillie]

I am new to CRS raising (less than 1 month). I have 10 CRS in a 20g planted tank, with 1/2 the substrate as cycled ADA soil. The shrimps are eating well. I feed them with some special shrimp food from Japan (from the seller of the shrimp), mixed up with Fluval shrimp granules I bought from King Ed. Also feed them cooked spinach on & off. I have seen some shrimps trying to curve up the body as if they want to molt, but I so far have not seen molted shells. So does this mean they fail to molt? Do I need any special products to help this process? Have your shrimps molted successfully & regularly without using any of the expensive Japanese supplements? If the shrimps fail to molt, can they survive?

Another question is about using almond leaves. Is the leaf good for a CRS tank and in what way? Does it only provide food or does it do more than that?

Sorry just too new in this hobby to know any better. Any advice from you shrimp specialists will be highly appreciated.

[effox]

If they fail to molt they will die. Almond leaves lower PH (you don't need to worry about that with ADA soil), it acts as another food source, and adds anti fungal properties I believe.

Have you tested your GH, if so what degree are you currently at? This could be a hardness issue preventing successful molts.

Cheers,
Chris

[Tarobot]

almond leave releases tannin and sets the ph slightly to what shrimps prefer. if they failed to molt you'd see dead shrimps everywhere. it's possible that the molted exoskeleton just gets pushed by the water current to some obscure corner or the shrimps ate it to regain some calcium. i'm assuming youre using either hikari or shirakura for food? there's usually enough calcium in there to help the molt and if youre keeping your gh at a decent level it'll all be fine.