plant

I received a 4gal finnex for x-mas and will be getting a betta as soon as my tank cycles. ( always do fishless cycles on my tanks.) I got some cabomba carolina just to help cycle tank. I have a faily high light (26watts.). My question is I read that I should have a Java plant, but they get large and full of aglae under high light. Any ideals for me that betta would like and still leave room for him to swim.

I dont see why java fern would be a problem. There great plants for low light no co2 setups and very easy to keep. They need to be attached to a rock or wood so if you worried about taking up to much room you could just put 5-6 plants on a small bit ow wood at the back to give your betta space but it will also have a group of plants that it can hide in amongst.

Our bettas liked well planted tanks and they loved to swim in plants... As background I liked valisneria spiralis. It is something like high grass. We had it in 30 cm high tank and we needed to cut the upper part of it and control the growing by cutting the rhizomes. But maybe it will grow too fast for such a small tank... But bettas are labyrinth fish and they should like to swim in plants, because this is what they do in nature... And they also should like to relax on leaves - anubias nana is a slow growing plant with nice strong leaves and it do not need strong light. Also some echinodorus plants should be a good option, they also do not need strong light and you can choose a specie, which do not grow very high. Maybe an echinodorus would be much better for you than valisneria...