[Giddy012]

I would go with 5 small cories. I have 5 panda cories in with my Betta (along with a few other fish but they are in a 20gal long so enough room to get away). A big issue that seems to be getting missed here is that your Betta will probable get along better with other fish, that other fish will get along with him. Many fish are fin nippers, and they see the Bettas nice long pretty tale and will start to nip his fins (ouch). So you may want to now start to stay away from the pet stores and get some advice from a "real" fish store. They can advice on who might get along best with your Betta. The cories are farely active fish with a "cute" face, and with them you are pretty much guranteed no issues between tankmates. Also I do a 20% water change every other day in my 10gal. I don't mean to sound rude, as I made a couple petsore buys that only 1 of the 6 fish buys from Petco are still in my tanks. Everyone else eventualy got taken back, or donated to my local fish store.