Dead Cherry Shrimp

[DreaminginBlue]

While feeding my cory cats, I noticed something red lying on the substrate. It was a cherry shrimp. His eyes had been eaten but otherwise he looked intact. He was very much dead. I'm still in shock. I haven't had these guys that long, maybe a week and a half, but I love them a lot and I was really upset to see him dead.
The other seven look fine. They're hanging out in the plants eating algae as usual. But I wanted to know why he was dead.
I tested my parameters and there's no ammonia or nitrite. Nitrate is at around 5 ppm. I can't think of anything I've done that would have killed him. Last week I dosed less than the recommended amount of Excel for the first time, and they seemed fine.
It doesn't look like he was having a molting complication, but I could be wrong. Another shrimp molted just fine a few days ago, and the water hardness is aqeduate.
Could he have just been old, or sick? I'm struggling to come up with a reason why he died. I don't think my cory cats could have killed him...
I included a picture. Maybe you guys can see something I didn't. The only things I noticed were his lack of eyes, a possibly injury on his underside, and he seems redder than he was before he died?
Sorry for the incoherent rant. Still quite upset about losing him.

 

[SirMack]

i am sorry for your loss Dreaminginblue, this is quite a confusing situation it is a good possibility that the shrimp was just sick and died these things do happen sometimes i would recommend checking all your other fish for any signs of sickness just to make sure

 

[DreaminginBlue]

Thank you for the reply. I will continue to keep an eye on them. So far everyone seems fine.