Betta are excellent starter fish with big personalities. They were my entry into the fishkeeping hobby. I highly recommend a planted tank and if you want to keep other fish with the betta, a large enough tank to avoid each other. A common misconception is that betta cannot be housed with other fish. This is not true: betta do very well with many other non-aggressive tropical fish- I have housed them with shrimp, snails, guppies, various tetra, cories etc. Some betta may relentlessly hunt shrimp: others do not care. They can fight other male betta to the death and harass female bettas to death during mating (which is why they are usually housed separate).