What could have happened to my amano?
Sorry for the long post but I want to give as many details as possible. Thanks in advance to anyone willing to read and give me some light
I got two Sun Orange Amano shrimps on January 24. They were juveniles by then, so I can assume they were no more than 3 months old. One of them grew significantly bigger, and by March 10, it got berried, so that confirmed I had one male and one female. She went through 4 cycles of getting berried, but it looks like the larvae never actually developed (I found a couple of times a clump of eggs dropped on the bottom of the tank), but it was not like I was willing to go through the hassle of breeding them anyway. After going through those 4 cycles (last eggs dropped around the second week of June), she didn’t develop a new saddle, her color changed from some sort of brownish to a really bright orange (pictures for reference), and she started acting calmer than usual. She was not getting excited when I was dropping pellets into the tank, or fighting for the food, and running away… you know, normal Amano stuff. She was still grazing and eating, just less enthusiastic (my husband said sometimes she looked like she was staring into the abyss), so I thought it might just be a change in her metabolism. That happened around two months ago. Today I found her dead. It was half eaten when I found her, so I was not able to examine the body for clues to the reason. I didn’t find any remains of molting either.
By my numbers, she was around 10 months old (I had her for almost 7), so she was not even half of the average lifespan. The male hasn’t shown any change. I added another 2 yellow Amanos about 2.5 months ago. Those also ended up being females, and both are berried right now (first time both), no issues with them either, as far as I see. I have a gazillion of blue Neocaradinas that are breeding like crazy. I’d really appreciate it if anyone has any idea of what could have happened to her. Or maybe it was just bad luck with that one?
These are my tank details: 36 gallons, running for 9 months, two internal filters, plus a sponge filter and air stone, 15% water change every 10 days (tap water with conditioner), well planted, aquasoil as substrate, temp. 76°F (I have a chiller), PH 7.6, Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 20, GH 8, KH 6. Parameters have been steady for the last 5 months. I put calcium supplement every 3 weeks (Aquarium Co-op). I feed them veggies twice a week, and Shrimp Cuisine once a week (besides whatever they steal from the fish, for whom I alternate between pellets and frozen foods). Everyone fasts every 4 days. Tank mates are 12 chili rasboras, 10 green neon tetras, 4 guppies (total jerks, but just among them, they never pick on the rest of the community), 6 panda corys, one bamboo shrimp, one mystery snail, one nerite snail, and the gazillion of blue neos (I would say around 50). The tank has a good lid, so I don’t think I have any invaders.