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tank cycling is when you let your tank go through the nitrogen cycle. it builds up bacteria that will help keep your tank clean and healthy. if you want this better explained i can go into more detail but there is alot of stuff online you could read about too.

i have kept a male betta with at least 4 female betta just fine in a 10 gallon tank. you should be able to keep a male betta with anything that isnt another male betta. i keep mine with gourami. in a 10 gallon tank a dwarf species would be best. they are usually easy to find, dont get bigger than 2 inches and if you can keep a betta you can keep a gourami because they are related (both are labyrinth fish and pretty much live in the same conditions)

neon blue
dwarf
honey
powder blue
flame


kissing fish get too big (6-12 inches) for a 10 gallon tank and they are very aggressive (the kissing is actually fighting) so no go there.
now sucker fish
dont get any kind of pleco....they get very big and poop too much
cory cats are good bottom feeders. they need to be kept it groups of at least 3 but are pretty small anyway so that shouldn't be a problem.
dont get any barbs because they n** fins and will tear your betta apart.
no mollies or platys because they do best in salted water.

you can see my tank here and what i have in it. you can also read up on the dwarf puffers. you could fit a bunch of them in a 10 gallon tank.

puffer fish are a species only fish because they are very aggressive. you couldnt keep them with betta. i keep dwarf puffer fish. if you had a tank for JUST THEM its super cute. and you have to be real careful with puffer info. some are brackish and need salt but are called freshwater puffers and usually dont last long and some are freshwater puffers but people say to put in brackish which isnt good for them. i KNOW dwarf puffers are true fresh water because i own them and they are doing very well.

saltwater is DIFFICULT in a small tank. the best starter salt aquarium is at least 50 gallons. parameters are VERY important (salinity, ammonia, nitriates, nitrates, KH, calcium, magnesium, ect) and are unstable in small tanks. the bigger the tank the easier. smaller tanks need an experienced keeper.

Hello,

Here's a link on the nitrogen cycle. http://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm
Fishless cycling is the best way to go, though it can take a while. I just finished mine, 2 weeks to get rid of all the nitrite out of a 10L tank. (+/- 2.5 G)
Also, ammonia toxinity is related to PH, the lower the PH, the less toxic the ammonia: http://www.aquaworldaquarium.com/Articles/TonyGriffitts/Ammonia.htm

I think tetras make good companions for bettas. Most of them are mid-level and don't swim around too much. They prefer to hang around in a school and squabble amongst themselves. They usually leave other fish alone, and are strong enough to stand their own should your betta be a bit more agressive then usual. They are hardy too.
Here's a list of various tetras. The Paracheirodon and Hyphessobrycon families I recomend most strongly. They come in quite a wide variety of colors too.

Livebreeders like guppies and swordtails are pretty good too, but sometimes the large fancy tails of the male guppy can set off a betta in a bad way, so care must be taken. They also tend to populate the top level more.
I thought it was only the molly that needed salt, since the platy is more related to the swordtail, and I thought those didn't need the salt.

Barbs are a tricky situation, they are indeed known for nipping, especially the tiger barbs, but I've kept rosy and cherry barbs without any problem with a betta.

I find gouramis to be a tricky situation. Much depends on the character of the fish. In both bettas and gouramis some fish are very dominant and agressive, which results to them being a bit of a bully, or they are so shy they get pushed around a lot. If you want to keep a gourami or a pair of gouramis with your betta I'd sugest to look in the pet shop for the one that doen't get pushed around or hide away from everyone, but also doesn't go around chasing all the other fish.

Sharks, Rasboras, Danios & Barbs Appart from barbs there are other more peacefull fish to chose from in this family, like rasboras and danios. The danios are, like barbs, more on the hyper side, but the smaller rasboras are more timid.
If you really have a betta bully, like I once had, you can solve it by adding a shark. Not a bala or a black one, those get too large, but a red-fin or red-tailed. They are solitary territorial fish that prefer to keep to the bottom of the tank.
My old Cleo used to pick on everything that moved untill I added the shark. Then she only pestered that fish. They would have brief encounters midlevel and then retreat back to their respective water levels.

Other bottomfeeders I recomend are Corys and Ottos I'd stay away from loaches too, because they get as large as most sharks but instead of being solitar they are schooling fish. I think a school of 3-5 Corys would do pretty well in a 10 gal, depending on how many other fish you have in there and how often you change the water.

Hope this wall of text helped a bit.
sweatdrop

also could i put a ghost shrimp in there or would that be too many things in the tank? i think ill get 3 cories and my betta, or 1 shark and my betta, or even just the shark lol

and how do you test the water for all this ph stuff?

what reptiles do you have?
we have a red earred slider (female-Jade) and a rosy boa (male-Jasper)

ok,to i probably wont get the shrimp
and ill stick with gravel then

and i have 2 snakes, 1bearded dragon, 4 leopard geckos, 1 panther gecko, and 1 gargoyle gecko. i also have 3 newts and 3 frogs, but they arent reptiles lol

also someone on another forum suggested a Bristlenose plecostomus
any info on them? what do they eat? how long do they live? would it have to live by itself?

ok
well, i think i will go for the corries, thanks to all that helped ^.^

i got a filter today and filled up the tnak with water and put in my betta. now i just wait forever for everything to cycle ^.^

i will. so far my betta is being one of those weird bettas and not liking all the space. he stays in the corners and in his house. poor thing has never delt with stress well at all, but he should be back to his normal fishy self in a few days. i think he will like being with other fish, my other male betta died recently and so Judas has seemed depressed. him and Jesus used to live a few feet from each other and just "play" with each other. im not sure if it was play or not but it was something for them to do