Hi, I am relatively new to fish keeping, completely new to tropical fish keeping and I went ahead and bought a Betta.
I spent far too much money, £100, on an attractive 9 gallon/35 litre nano tank with all the bells and whistles. It is a palace for my fish and he now shares it with some other suitable tank mates.
Doing it all again I would absolutely get a Betta again. In fact I would get loads of them. Either in a larger 10 or 20 gallon with dividers or in individual 5 gallon tanks. Here in the UK a 5 gallon tank with filter and light will go as cheaply as £30, then all that is needed is a heater approx £10. So it's an affordable hobby to get into.
I cheat cycled my tank by using bottled bacteria. The brand was Microbe-lift but I'm unsure if it is available everywhere. Tetra Safe Start is a popular, go to brand for a beneficial bacteria kick start.
What I did notice, with using bottled bacteria is that you still go through the same processes as a normally cycled tank but it is safe to introduce fish early.
I had a diatom (brown algae) outbreak after the first week. Then I had a bacterial bloom all over my wood, now I have noticed some sort of plankton creatures floating everywhere in the tank (apparently this is a good thing). It all absolutely freaked me out as I had put a significant amount of money into setting up a tank for a fish that cost me less than £10.
I would recommend cycling an empty tank in future, first because it is less expensive than buying bottled bacteria, secondly because you will still have to deal with the same algae and bacteria mini outbreaks anyway. But I had to deal with them in a live tank with a significant amount of bog wood and live plants.
Betta are a brilliant introduction to tropical fish keeping. They are inexpensive, can do well in a small inexpensive tank. They have loads of character, mine will feed from my finger tip now, and they love to see what is going on around them. They are a tough fish and can usually survive some rookie mistakes like missing a water change or not having a properly cycled tank. They also look stunning.