Juvenile Red Cherry Shrimp dying

[vandulce]

Hello, I am a first-time shrimp keeper. In the past day, I noticed three of my young cherry shrimp have died. They're only a few weeks old, and my second generation of babies. The first generation seemed fine and are about 2 months old now. I'm not sure why they are dying, because my water parameters have been pretty stable. I added a cuttlebone in there three weeks ago because I was worried they didn't have enough calcium. I also add IALs. For the most part, I don't feed them as my tank was full of algae and decaying plant matter. I gave them some bloodworms last night because I read maybe they weren't getting enough protein, and this morning they were all gone.

Any ideas as to what is going on/what I can do to prevent more shrimplet deaths? Thank you.


Tank
What is the water volume of the tank? 10 gal.
How long has the tank been running? 4 months.
Does it have a filter? Yes
Does it have a heater? Yes
What is the water temperature? 72 degrees
What is the entire stocking of this tank? ~50 RCS

Maintenance
How often do you change the water? Once a week
How much of the water do you change? 25%
What do you use to treat your water? Prime water conditioner
Do you vacuum the substrate or just the water? Vacuum substrate

*Parameters - Very Important
Did you cycle your tank before adding fish? Yes
What do you use to test the water? API Master Test Kit
What are your parameters? We need to know the exact numbers, not just “fine” or “safe”.

pH: 7.2
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 0 ppm (it has been reading zero for months and the shrimps have been breeding and molting fine)
GH: 8
KH: 4
TDS: 240 ppm

 

[Sprinkle]

It's not good that your Nitrates are at 0ppm. You are supposed to have some Nitrates. How do you perform your partial water changes?
richie.p

 

[JettsPapa]

25% WC is more than I usually see recommended for shrimp since they're so sensitive to changes in water parameters. I change 10% weekly in mine and it's worked well so far. Most recommendations I've seen say no more than 15%.

I'm not saying that's why the shrimp died, but it's something to consider.

 

[vandulce]

It's not good that your Nitrates are at 0ppm. You are supposed to have some Nitrates. How do you perform your partial water changes?
richie.p

Yeah I’m worried about that. I remove 25% of the water (and gravel vacuum) and then add it back in using a pump at a slow stream. I’m going to try what Jetts said and do small PWCs

 

[Sprinkle]

Yeah I’m worried about that. I remove 25% of the water (and gravel vacuum) and then add it back in using a pump at a slow stream. I’m going to try what Jetts said and do small PWCs

Also, when putting new water to the tank, make sure that the water is well oxygenated and dechlorinated, and use the drip method to put that water in, just like you would acclimate them.