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I wouldn't worry too much about one dead shrimp at this stage as the whole process of shipping and different water parameters (yours and sellers were quite different) is very stressful to shrimp and from what I have read of your posts so far you are doing extremely well. I always expect to lose a shrimp or 2 within the first month of getting them through the post! The rising parameters are usually down to evaporation (I think we covered that previously) in which case always top up with plaiin RO water, as evaporation is pure water, or down to rocks. Your rising numbers aren't outside the optimum range for bloody mary shrimp so that isn't too concerning if there is some length of time over which this has happened? I would do the 10% weekly water changes anyway as that isn't really too much of a chore. Though doing it fortnightly shouldn't really make much difference. Try and do the PH test in the middle of the day as different times of day (especially first thing in the morning) can give a different figure. Also the gh and kh tests only show a rough figure anyway, if it were 4.8 it may read 4 and then 5.1 read 5 even though there is little between those figures, ie not actually a whole 1 as it appears? Keep up the good work!

The rocks were supposedly identified as banded jasper, which should be inert. After soaking a sample of the rock, there was no increase to GH or KH in RODI water.

What rock do you have?

Today, after introducing my shrimp about a month ago, I found my first dead shrimp ? They all were seemingly well and happy and I have a few berried ladies. Today I looked in my tank this morning and saw 3 good molts. Probably female so I was excited to possibly see more berried mamas. Then I look in the corner and see a very obvious dead male shrimp, 1 of the 3, maybe 4 that I had. Which was kind of a blow to my colony building. Anyhow, is this an isolated incident? Everyone had molted many times without a problem until today. There are no predators in the tank. Only 1 small nerite snail. I have noticed that sometimes the females will have the white line/ring but then they thankfully come out molting without an issue. About the tank itself. 9 gallon low tech planted. Fertilize lightly (low nitrate fertilizer) twice a week. I had been doing 10% weekly water changes and the death of the shrimp was found during the trial run of doing a 10% water change every 2 weeks. Water change day was supposed to be on this upcoming Sunday. Current tank parameters: Ammonia 0 ppm Nitrites 0 ppm Nitrates 5 ppm GH 7 dKH KH 5 dKH TDS 230 PH 8.1 Some things I have noticed is that my GH and KH are creeping up. It started at GH 6 dKH and KH 4 dKH. On water change day, I set my TDS down to 210 (when it was weekly). PH is higher too, previously around 7.8. I use a PH pen so I do need to check calibration. My Brazilian Pennywort is having new growth, but a lot of the old leaves is getting weak or dying. The shrimp are munching on the weak leaves hardcore. The rest of my plants are doing ok with slow growth. I try occasionally to feed them additional food, such as Glasgarten Mineral Junkies, Aquatic Arts snowflake and bee pollen, but they take no interest in the food right now. I do dose a very small amount of Bacter AE on a weekly basis. My rocks should be inert and shouldn't be leaching into the water, not sure if it's the uneaten mineral junkie pellet? I don't give them a full stick, I have been trying to pinch off a tiny portion to test feed. I'm not sure if something is going wrong and/or if I need to go back to weekly water changes? Was this an unlucky isolated incident? Am I going up against a ticking time bomb? I'm still waiting on my first batch of shrimplets (looks like maybe 5 eggs for my earliest mom) ?