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Sounds to me like you introduced some sort of disease or parasite with the new guppies you introduced. I doubt it's a water quality issue if you haven't changed anything significant. You could try to figure out what it might be and treat it. You could also look into the Aquarium Co Op...

It's a bit tougher, but you can find your own drift wood and there are ways to make sure you aren't introducing any parasites or issues. I haven't done it, but I know people who have collected their own driftwood for free successfully.

I wouldn't do it. I tried it and a single assassin was latched onto my nerite for an extended period trying to kill it. Had to rescue and separate it. I have more than one tank so what I do now is rotate the snails back and forth between tanks to alternately help control algae and pond...

I think it looks great. I would add a piece of driftwood and maybe a couple more plants in the back and some floating plants. I would remove the whole squidward looking house because I think that makes it look less natural and distracts.

Hard to say, but I always lean toward giving him a chance. Sometimes things look worse than they really are.

This looks fine to me. I kind of like the looks of tannins in the water personally. Looks more natural. If you can't stand it, the only solution is to remove the driftwood. But I think you should leave it in. It will stop eventually.

How strong is your air pump and how big is your tank? Bettas don't like a lot of water disturbance so it could be an issue if you have a strong sponge filter in a small tank.

Looks like maybe some type of algae eater maybe? Can you donate it to a local fish store? If you feed it and do a few water changes it should be ok.

He doesn't look healthy to me, suggesting some sort of water quality issue. 2G is also pretty small for a betta in my opinion.

I think you can set up a deep tank in a way that works for a betta, but I think a shallow tank works better because there is less wasted space. The betta will want to spend most of it's time near the surface.

I think for a betta, the goal is to get as large a tank as possible as long as it is shallow water. They don't like to swim up too high to get air. But the further they can swim horizontally the better.

I think 2.5G is too small. Go for at least 5G. A 10G is ideal really. Also, easier to stay on top of water quality with a larger tank.

I have kuhli loaches with shrimp and a betta and they do great, as long as the tank is big enough. I wouldn't try it in anything smaller than a 20G though. That's on the low end.

How were you able to cycle the tank in a week? Did you add filter media from an established tank or something? In my experience, Neon tetras tend to be weaker because they are so overbred. It could be that if there was a problem, they would be less resilient. You could also have got a bad...

I think Nerite is the best option. I have a nerite with my betta and they do well together. The only point to note is that if you get a female nerite, they lay little white eggs everywhere that never hatch. I don't mind, but some people don't like that.

Yes, most places won't give you anything for your shrimp. I found one place that would give me 1/8 retail value on the shrimp I gave them, but then it went out of business. Since then I give them to another store for free when there are too many of them.

Doesn't look like fin rot to me. Just a color change which is normal in that kind of betta. You do need to get the ammonia under control though or it will lead to fin rot and other problems. Just do large daily water changes until the ammonia gets to zero. Beautiful fish!

Do you have a fish store nearby? When I have too many shrimp I just take a bunch to the local fish store. Sometimes you can get store credit for them.

Try feeding him something else like live food. Also, I find 3.5G tanks lead to lethargic bettas because they get bored quickly. You could look into something a little bigger. It's also harder to stay on top of water quality in such a small tank.

I use RO water and I add Seachem Equilibrium and I also add PH stabilizers and that's it. Seems to work well for me.

Your tank isn't cycled and you added too many fish too quickly. Just keep doing large daily water changes until ammonia and nitrite drop to zero. It would help to get some real plants in there too, even just some floating plants like frogbit or some easy column feeders like java fern. You...

Interesting. Yes, I've noticed the health issue too. And it happened more than once from multiple vendors when I bought them. You might be right about the behavior. I tried to keep them with a betta and they were really shy and skittish. I moved the betta to his own 5G tank and they became...

I have a school of 10 CPDs in my 20G. They are beautiful, wonderful fish. In my experience when you get them they are a little faded and the color comes in over time. I also find they are often sickly when you get them. I'm not sure if they are overbred or what. I had to use the Aquarium Co...

Throw some floating plants like frogbit in there and maybe some java fern is pretty easy. You could plant some dwarf sag. It's definitely looking pretty bare in there.

I tried it and it went terribly. I had to get rid of my Siamese algae eater. I wouldn't recommend it. They kept fighting and the siamese algae eater wouldn't leave the betta alone. I wouldn't try it.

Beautiful pictures. You certainly have a gift.

I think just snails and shrimp. Bettas do well with kuhli loaches, but kuhlis prefer to be in groups in a bigger tank. I would say at least a 20G long.

Beautiful tank and beautiful fish. It was a pleasure reading through your thread. I'm in Virginia too! I hope you can get it back to how it was. If the snail invasion continues to be a problem, an assassin snail will solve the problem for you.

That tetra tank is beautiful. I wonder if your tank is a little cold for the shrimp? Do you have a heater in there? Not sure what else could be the problem. In my experience shrimp are pretty hardy. You might have just got a bad batch or something. I thought this was useful review for...

Nerites can help with certain types of algae on the margins, but if you have significant algae problems, you need to address the cause, which is usually a lighting, nutrient, water quality issue.

Usually this sort of thing is the result of a water quality issue. When you get your water test results back that may shed some light on what caused it. Do you have a picture of the tank?

Pull out that moss along with the algae. Cut back the lighting to about 8 hours a day. Make sure you are doing a large water change every week. Buy an API test kit and start testing the water for Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate especially. Either upgrade to a 10G, rehome the tetras, or...

It's normal for bettas to change color over time. Do you have better pictures? It's kind of hard to tell from what you posted.

He looks like he's struggling. Did you cycle the new tank? I agree you need to check the water for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. Not sure what else could be problem.

I don't recommend it. I had a betta in a 2.5 Gallon for a few weeks and he seemed bored and depressed. I moved him to a planted 5G and he was immediately more active and seemed happier and healthier. I keep shrimp in my 2.5G and it works great for that. That's what I would recommend. I also...

I'm sure he's fine. Just leave him alone and he will figure it out. As long as your water conditions are decent, he should be ok.

By the way, if anyone wants free shrimp, I always have plenty here in NoVa.