Cherry Shrimp Keep Dying

[BF McUmber]

I have a 40 gallon breeder tank that I set up on 8/16/21. I am testing what plants will do well in my water so currently it is lightly planted. On 9/3/21 I added about 20 cherry shrimp to the tank as the only inhabitants. Over time I have been slowly losing them one by one and I cannot determine why. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. 

Death Rate:
9/3/21 At the beginning I lost like 2 shrimp but I'm taking them as shipping casualties.  
9/24/21 I lost one shrimp a day for 4 days then I lost maybe 2 outside this window. 
10/12/21 I added 4 quarantined Blue Neon Goby to the tank and the shrimp seemed to stop dying. 
10/26/21 I lost one shrimp each day for 3 days. 
I lost a total of 3 between the 26th and now. 
When they die they are still in one piece, the other shrimp do not eat the corpse. With exception to one the bodies were not in the tank a day. The one that was in longer was in the rock pile and when I took it out it was nibbled on a little.

Tank mates: In the tank I also know I have detritus worms, Rhabdocoela worms, and a happy colony of bladder snails. I also have the 4 Neon Goby. 
Plants are riccia, water wisteria, philo moss, tiger lotus bulb, dwarf sagitaria, and some crypt parva. (The bacopa and the scarlett temple are giving up the ghost)

Shrimp Behavior: At work my shrimp are always moving around and eating stuff. They seem to be very active and happy/hungry. 
At home my shrimp seems to just stand still a lot, and are cleaning their swimmerettes very often. They do swim around and will eat but don't seem to do it as often or as constantly as my shrimp at work. They also seem to eat for just a little bit and then will leave it alone to rot or for the snails to find it. As my snail population has grown the food will disappear overnight or so. I have one shrimp that is berried but she only has like 5 eggs. I have 2 more in the tank that have a giant saddle and I would expect them to be berried soon. I will be interested to see how many eggs they produce.  I see molts often so I assume they are molting fine. The calcium on the test is the same as it is at work, but reaching for straws I did put a wonder shell in the back of my cave. 

Food: soylent green repashy, BacterAE, Hikari crab cuisine, hikari micro pellets, and recently started adding frozen rotifers and baby brine shrimp. I usually rotate the food but the Repashy and bacterAE seem to do the best so they are fed more often. 

Water conditions: 
The water conditions are quite stable at the below parameters. I tested the water at every death and it was fairly consistent as well. 
Ammonia=0, Nitrites=0, Nitrates~20ppm
PH=8.0, GH=14 degrees, Kh=10 degrees
Calcium=3.5 degrees, Copper=0 ppm (only tested once today)

Water change:
I change about 20% water on a weekly basis. At the beginning I tried not changing water for 2 weeks but then two shrimp died. The water parameters were consistent when I changed that water out and have not let it sit since. I noticed on two occasions they they would die on day day 5 or so of the water change week. When doing water changes I dose Prime and Easy Green into the tank at the recommended doses.  

Plea for help:
I feel like I have exhausted my knowledge and anything else that I could look up. I was hoping that when the copper test came in today that it would be through the roof but that is not the case. I would be happy to hear any suggestions of what to test or do, because I am at a loss as to why I am consistently losing them.  

Thank you for your time,
Brad

 

Edited November 4, 2021 by BF McUmber
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[Guppysnail]

I am very sorry to see this happening to you. Shrimp do not do well in new tanks. The biofilm and such that grows in a more seasoned tank are vital to their health. Place several Indian almond leaves (available through Aquarium coop or amazon) in the tank and a piece of driftwood if you can as soon as possible to help grow what they need. This may go a long way to helping your shrimp. Hang in there I went through 3 batches before I got the shrimp thing right. 

Edited November 4, 2021 by Guppysnail
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[BF McUmber]

I can do that I have one almond leave in there that is like half gone but I can easily add more. 

[Trish]

I had to try 3 times before I got it right as well.  It was disappointing at first, as shrimp are fairly expensive here. Finally it happened just as I was ready to throw in the towel!   

1O gallons, a 2 yr cycle, LOTS of plants, sand substrate, cholla wood and driftwood, Catappa leaves and a couple of alder cones. I never dreamed I'd end up with close to 50 Bloody Mary shrimp from only 4 shrimp!  Tank mates are 5 ember tetra and 5 pygmy Cory's.

I like your set up @BF McUmber

[BF McUmber]

On 11/4/2021 at 10:34 PM, Trish said:

I had to try 3 times before I got it right as well.  It was disappointing at first, as shrimp are fairly expensive here. Finally it happened just as I was ready to throw in the towel!   

1O gallons, a 2 yr cycle, LOTS of plants, sand substrate, cholla wood and driftwood, Catappa leaves and a couple of alder cones. I never dreamed I'd end up with close to 50 Bloody Mary shrimp from only 4 shrimp!  Tank mates are 5 ember tetra and 5 pygmy Cory's.

I like your set up @BF McUmber

Thank you. 

I find it funny that the tank I made at work which was my first fish tank ever, has like 70 skrittle shrimp in the tank. Yes, all but one male from the originals died but they seem to be living a pretty good life there. All they get to eat is hikari micro pellets and tetra color flakes, and they don't even get fed on the weekends. They do have some java moss and guppy grass but everything else is fake decorations. 
Besides plants dying and a couple fish getting sick (totally my negligence) the work tank definitely made it seem simpler. It is so much more successful than my attempts at home so far. I'm not giving up, just think it's funny.   

[Guppysnail]

The colony I had success with that has turned into hundreds the originals did not last long. But as with most fish the ones born in my tank became stable and hardy. It’s just getting those first shrimplettes that’s the hard part. 

Edited November 5, 2021 by Guppysnail
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