Credit for the video: Ahmed Shaheen (Egypt)
Description: Abdel Rahman El Gamal (Founder of the website and video channel)
In this short video one can see the molting moment of a shrimp specimen (marked in red). I guess that was a sort of luck to catch this moment.
Molting is an essential process for the growth of shrimp in which molting cycles are repeated several times in order to allow growth throughout its life. Upon molting, the shrimp body will absorb water and grow large, then there hardening of the shell. After a hard outer shell, shrimp body size remains until the next molting cycle. As expected. The molting frequency during the early stages of life cycle of shrimp is much higher compared to that in larger size shrimp; this is based on the high relative growth rate in young animals compared to that in adults.
Molted shrimp lived its most critical phase. Until the new outer shell is hardened, molted shrimp are susceptible to diseases infection and vulnerable to other shrimps (cannibalism) and other predators.
There are two hormones controlling the molting process in shrimp. Molting stimulating hormones are produced and secreted by the Y-organ while the X-organ -which is located on the eyestalk, produces the molt-inhibiting hormone that prevents the release of the molt stimulating hormones. That is why the eyestalk ablation in shrimp leads to precocious molt, and molting occurs several times following ablation.
