3 year old Neocaridina colony quickly dying

[Koltonlive]

Hello everyone!
So I've had a fairly stable colony of cherrys for around 3 years now. I moved them into a new tank last April and all has been well until now.


The other day I noticed I couldn't spot any of them except for a few juveniles and 1-2 adults. They seem to have all died off. I haven't changed a single thing in my process since the new tank. I do a 25% water change with salty shrimp gh/kh remineralized to 150tds every Sunday. I just tested the water and the parameters were ph - 6ish, ammonia 0, nitrites 0, nitrates around 0, kh 0-1, gh 5-6, and tds is reading 194. I'm really bummed out about this and would greatly appreciate any help or suggestions. I thought that after having them for 3 years they wouldn't just die off on me so fast. There were at least 60 around Christmas time and always visible. My only thought is my ph has crashed. I use uns controsoil which I know rips kh out of the water but I’m not sure why this would be an issue after almost a whole year.
I hope someone can give me some help or suggestions.. almost thinking I need to get the last few out that I can and move them to a temp tank so I can overhaul this one. Thanks guys.

 

[connorlindeman]

Could it be caused by excessive inbreeding?

 

[Aqua67]

I think what you are experiencing probably happens to all shrimpkeepers at some time. The reasons for why are many. The water parameters can certainly affect them but it doesn’t appear that you’ve noticed any evidence of that.

Shrimp usually only live for a year or two, depending on the temps you keep them at, and their diet. Speaking of diet, there could be problems molting if they aren’t getting what they need for that. If you don’t feed them often enough, or if you feed them too much…. So many possibilities. If in the past you’ve had population explosions, perhaps it is time for that generation now to pass?

Household cleaners or sprays used too close to the tank may have contaminated the tank, you may have had lotion on your hands, even a pesticide introduced with some new plants introduced last month, etc…

Really, there are so many possibilities. I wouldn’t beat yourself up about it. Tweak little things and watch the colony and see if things are getting better.

 

[seangee]

I had something similar a few years ago. Still no idea what caused it. I had shrimp and fish in the tank. When all the shrimp died (or so I thought) I did daily water changes of 50%+ for a couple of weeks in case there was something in the water that could harm the fish. My first 2 changes were 90%. I decided not to buy any more until I could figure out what was going on. Turns out there were a few shrimplets that survived and 6 months later the tank was back up to normal. That was a couple of years ago. I do have to buy some new blood because the numbers have now started declining and I suspect that is down to excessive inbreeding as everything came from those few survivors - who were probably siblings.