I agree with him. A beta can be picky, but they aren’t very fast. In fact, I actually bred cherry shrimp in my beta tank. Had to sell them as there were just too many! At the end of the day it comes down to the fish’s individual personality, and also the amount of hiding places the shrimp have. but on another note: awesome tank, really looking forward to the updates!
It's a funny thing, these tanks... In the above post I mentioned that they were doing exceptionally well, but after moving tanks about a year ago (same plants, fish and all, only different substrate.) the numbers decreased dramatically. I moved them again this past week, so we'll have to see how things go. Honestly, sometimes I guess your just lucky or you're not.