SHRIMP, TO PEEL, OR NOT TO PEEL?

[doubledragon]

O.K. I usually buy raw market shrimp at 1/2 lb. to 1lb. at a time or so. Today it was on sale so I bought 5 lbs. and it took over 2 hrs. to de-shell all of it. That suck's. My hand's hurt!
So my question is do you guy's de-shell all your shrimp or not.
Is it safe for fish to eat the shell's? Or will it cause problem's?
I also feed smelt among other thing's. I like shrimp, but it's only like 50 cent's cheaper a pound than smelt, and there's no peeling with smelt, only cutting, which is so easy.

 

[Nic]

i remove all shell

 

[DiXoN]

i only remove the sharp bits like the tail and legs but leave the main body shell on.

 

[Rakie]

I feed my Flowerhorn fresh freeze dried shrimp, they are full, with the shells on, he eats them and spits the shells out (Sometimes) like sunflower seeds.

 

[BlackKnife86]

I take the shells off i never tried leaving the shell on.

 

[davo]

Plecos I leave em on, anything else, like dixon, sharp bits like tail goes.

 

[Guinness]

I toss the whole thing in 1/2 lb at a time.

 

[Yakuza-Irezumi]

I toss the whole thing in 1/2 lb at a time.

You must have some impressive appetites in that tank!!

 

[shoefreak03]

It depends on what I'm feeding.
My larger fishes that can swallow the whole shrimp, I only take off the tail and leave the shell while feeding. For smaller fishes or with smaller mouth (ie. Clown Loaches), I deshell completely or else there will be bunch of shells on the tank bottom. I buy all my shrimps headless.

 

[KenyanSandBoa]

i only remove the sharp bits like the tail and legs but leave the main body shell on.

I do the same thing. It's pretty easy to cut too...if you just chop the tail off and the cut the legs...it only takes a couple of seconds per piece of shrimp.