First Fishtank Death - Poor RCS

I have had 5 RCS in my tank at work for exactly 30 days. Today, I walked over to do my daily body count to make sure everyone is still alive and kicking and one of the rcs was belly up on the gravel. I gently nudged him with my aquarium sweezers and he didn't move. He was still bright red, but not moving at all, not even when touched. I gave him a sad littly shrimp funeral, tossed him in a paper cup and put him in the garbage can.

He (I don't know the actual gender) was the biggest of the RCS I had. The others are much smaller in comparison. I wonder if he could have just been old. I have read that they live about a year and I don't know how old he was when I got him. I tested the water and everything is good. Maybe the pH is too high? I've seen many RCS keepers wtih pH in the same range, or higher with no problems, so I doubt that's it.

5.5 gallon planted tank with plain gravel, driftwood and some rocks
A few endlers
5 RCS
2 nerite snails

I test and change the water weekly and use Prime as my water conditioner.

Temp 78
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate - 5-10
pH 8-8.2

I had one thought that made me think maybe I'm responsible. Yesterday, I fed two algae wafers hoping that the shrimp and my two nerites would get to them. The fish hogged them and ate way too much. They were pooping white (not stringy, but white and normal thickness) - I haven't seen white before and no white today, so I figured it was due to overeating/bloat. Eventually the shrimp got some, but the snails ignored it. After a while, I used a turkey baster to remove the uneaten algae wafers. I dropped in a carrot for the snails, but they ignored that, too.

My fish all started hanging out in a group at the top of the tank. They've never done this before. I hurridly removed the carrot, but the behavior continued. I remembered that I had used a wet ones wipe to clean my hands earlier and worried that whatever is on the wet ones got into the tank and was poisoning everyone. I did a large 50-60% water change and watched the tank for a while as everythig settled. The fish seemed fine when I left.

Everyone looked alive when I got to work today, but about 30 minutes ago I found the dead shrimp. Could I have killed him with the wet ones residue on my hands, or could it have just been old age since he was so much bigger than the others?

I'm a little paranoid about this death because it's my first one to die since I set up my tanks in mid-May. Keeping my fingers crossed there aren't more dead ones tomorrow. I love the shrimp!

 

could just be old. maybe the wipes, hard to tell. you did the best thing, a water change.

feed them zucchinI the shrimp and snails will love it.

 

could be a variety reasons why the RCS died. Could of been the wipes, the food, the stress, age, temperature fluctuations when changing the water, and the list goes on.

I think you did everything right. Shrimps die...it's normal. If all your shrimps die, then there is a problem....

 

could just be old. maybe the wipes, hard to tell. you did the best thing, a water change.

feed them zucchinI the shrimp and snails will love it.

Do you feed the zucchinI raw, or do you have to cook it at all?

could be a variety reasons why the RCS died. Could of been the wipes, the food, the stress, age, temperature fluctuations when changing the water, and the list goes on.

I think you did everything right. Shrimps die...it's normal. If all your shrimps die, then there is a problem....

Good point AmazonPasion. I'll keep an eye on them and if others start dropping off I will give it more thought. I just found a big molt stuck in the filter - much larger than the other shrimp exoskeleton's I've seen recently, so maybe he molted and it killed him. I've heard of shrimps dying when the molt. I don't know if he was crunchy or soft when I removed him and I'm not keen on digging him out of the trash.

 

yes just cut it into round pieces and wash it of and that should be fine.