Shrimp Tank Deaths

I am trying to figure out what is going on with my shrimp tank. I have a 7.5 gallon with Aqueon Plant and Shrimp substrate.
We had 2 of our female shrimp (neocaridina) die over the last week. Yesterday, our pregnant one died. We have babies from a clutch before, but we think they are dying since they are not as prolific as they have been. There are shrimp and a single Oto cat. We are also fighting an infestation of nuisance snails as well, but they are being removed as we see them.

We had an explosion of detritis worms about a month ago but it looks like it has taken care of itself for the most part.

Single piece of driftwood, duckweed on the top at 25% coverage, and a few plants.
The tank is 3 months old at this point. 83 F temp. 25% water changes are done 1/week for maintenance. The substrate is not being cleaned because of the baby shrimp.

pH: 7.5
NH3: 0
Phosphates 5 ppm
Nitrite: 0

The aquarium has algae growing on the sides, but nothing terrible. I am using a small over the back filter as well as a sponge filter for tanks up to 15 gals. The tank was seeded with water and biological material from a cycled tank canister.

The intent of the tank was to be a shrimp tank for life cycles for my daughter, but with the death of the last mature female, I am hesitant to add more stock.
We are at a loss for why the deaths are occurring or what to look at to get the tank back to a healthy state.

 

1. How long have the shrimp been in the tank?
2. How were they acclimated?
3. I've only been keeping shrimp for a short time, but I've done a lot of research, and 83° is about 10 degrees warmer than the recommendations I've seen.

 

I think this comes down to two or 3 things. 1) 83 is wayyyyyy too warm. Not only for your shrimp but also the otto. Turn it down to mid to low 70s. 2) Smaller water changes. I had a problem with shrimp dying after water changes and was advised to do smaller water changes. 10-15%. 3) Are you feeding them? And how much algae that they can feed on is in the tank?

Also for reference how long have you had them and how did you acclimate them.

 

richie.p

 

From what I was finding, ~80F was where it was recommended to allow them to breed.. Is this not the case?

Every 3-4 days, I add a pellet of food for the shrimp and remove the excess after 2 days.

They have been in the tank for 2.5 months.

They went from another tank I had to this one with a few additions of water over the course of a few hours, but that was in December.

They tend to eat the algae that is currently in the tank and the biofilm present in the tank.

 

These type of death are alwsys difficult to pinpoint but the right questions are being asked by Rev I would certenly drop that temp to 72, you are almost cooking them and its known fact they breed faster st higher temp but their lifespan is reduced a lot, this in its self could be your problem

 

These type of death are alwsys difficult to pinpoint but the right questions are being asked by Rev I would certenly drop that temp to 72, you are almost cooking them and its known fact they breed faster st higher temp but their lifespan is reduced a lot, this in its self could be your problem

Thank you all for the input. I have turned down the temp and hopefully will spare the rest of my shrimp.

 

That in its self should improve things but keep in touch