Why are these ghost shrimp suddenly not living longer than a few days

HI all, I'm new to this so any advice would be appreciated. I've had a ten gal tank set up for probably about 2 months now. I dealt with ammonia issues until last week- I think my tank has finally cycled and all is well for now. Anywho, I have one blue and one dwarf gourami and two mystery snails. The snails have been extremely active lately but when I added 3 ghost shrimp a few weeks ago, they seemed to be the perfect addition; eating up all the left overs or dropped pellets that fell in the gravel. All was well with them for 2-3 weeks then randomly one day I came home to all my shrimp killed/ half eaten. Not once in those few weeks did I witness the gouramis touch them, so it was weird to see this. Since then, I have bought 6 more shrimp (3 shrimp, 2 separate times from different petsmarts) this week and only have one left. Last night I found one of the prego shrimp ripped open where the eggs had been an eaten, but the shrimp intact dead. Again, only one now remains. So to get to the point...

Why are these ghost shrimp suddenly not living longer than a few days at most..are gouramis known to eat shrimp?

Are there other types of shrimp, or what other small fish is helpful the way these ghost shrimp once were?

Thanks in advance!

 

Yes I think they will eat shrimp,gouramies can be aggressive.

 

Well first off ten gallons is too small for even just one dwarf gourmai, much less two gourami. I would re home them and find something that is more appropriate for your tank size.

Anders made this great list: https://www.fishlore.com/aquariumfishforum/threads/stocking-list-for-10-gallons.207629/


What are the parameters of your tank's water? What are you using to test the water?

The gourami could be eating the shrimp or it's just a bad stock. Ghost shrimp are usually seen as feeder shrimp, and unfortunately often times are not treated very well due to this at the stores and/or place where store got them from.

 

The gouramis have been what seems "happy" since day 1 not that I know their emotions but you know what I'm getting at. I gotta love the pet stores because I can't even begin to tell you my trial and error with fish due to what I've been told from one person to another. Even the labels under the gouramis states 10gal, so that's interesting. But I plan on getting a larger tank so good to know, thanks.

Funny though because Petcos ghost shrimp lasted the longest so maybe it's best to get from there vs. Petsmart..must be transported better possibly.

 

What bigger tank size will you be getting?

Yeah I tend not to go with my local chain store's advice without at least checking here and/or seriousfish.com. Unfortunately my local chain store's advice has been wrong each time.

Yup if petco's ghost shrimp seem to be more healthy then I would go with them.

 

Yes Gourami's can be quite aggressive with shrimp, especially if they are in tight quarters such as yours - Gourami's will need a bigger tank and they probably won't be as aggressive - your shrimp would do better if they had lots of moss to hide in as well.

Also to note, most ghost shrimp are "feeder" type of shrimp and not the best quality to begin with.
But regardless, I would not get any more shrimp until you can get a bigger tank ( if you want to keep your Gourami's ) or rehome them.