But without hands, those shrimp people aren't going to be able to do much in the way of tool use, which limits their space-faring prospects. If you're not a warp-capable species, you're basically nobodyl. I feel like you at least need to kick off the tech-tree with fire and banging rocks together. Fire means air, which means terrestrial locomotion, and tetrapod seems like the most elegant form for that to take off (three legs on the ground while one moves). Banging rocks together means two hands, which assuming we're developing from a tetrapod, means bipedalism.

Sure there might be some tungsten-based shrimp people who achieve warp through telekinesis or something suitably Traveler-esque, but that kind of hyper intelligence doesn't exactly lead to involving oneself in the petty squabbles of lesser life forms. They might exist, but they wouldn't be characters Starfleet would interact with regularly.