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I knew it was bound to happen. My betta gals have a taste for ghost shrimp. I noticed the tank was looking grungier than usual two days after I had done a gravel cleaning, and I only saw one ghost shrimp running around. So I brought home 9 more. (I told the dude 5, but he was lazy and just gave me 4 for free.) I put them in the tank, and four days later, I had only 3 left. My gals are actually hunting and killing them.... Erk.

What else could I use as a general tank cleaner? I have a planted 5 gallon with 3 female bettas, and two tiny Otocinlus. (After everything I heard about how they'll just die after being put in a new tank, I bought two and thought they both might not make it. They have.. sigh) I also have one Black Mistery Snail to clean the walls. (And the gals eat the baby snails.) Algea is no longer a problem, but I'm having to get the gravel cleaner out every week. (Versus once a month when I had between 7 to 8 shrimp in there.) I was thinking of one of the smaller speicies of Corys, but I don't know how bettas take to Corys.

Ghost shrimp are the best, they're histerical to watch, and they can clean an entire tank (poo and all) overnight. I just can't keep buying more every week.

Well, I wouldn't add anything, as your tank is already overstocked. I would take out two of the bettas, and put them, say, a ten gallon. That will reduce a lot of the waste in the tank, and make the fish that are in there happier.
Anyways, there really isn't a problem with vacuuming the tank weekly, I just do that along with my water change. The less waste the tank, the better.

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

First off, on your intital question, the only thing 'cleanup crew' orinted that's likley to survive shrimp eating bettas is a decent sized snail, as you have already discovered . Mystery snails will eat leftover food as well as algae, they're scavengers .

You REALLY don't have room for cory's . If, as sirbooks suggested, you were to upgrade to a 10G, then you could go with one of the smaller species .

On your comment about having to gravel vac weekly instead of monthly... Does that mean you were only doing monthly water changes? You SHOULD be doing weekly gravel vac's/water changes anyway .

On a tank of this size/stocking 'gunge' really shouldn't be building up in the space of 2 days. ... All i can think to suggest is to perhaps look at how much you are feeding. If you are in fact overfeeding, then this would account for such a fast build up of waste in the tank

What else could I use as a general tank cleaner?
Urm, a filter? Sorry, does this tank actually have a filter on it? You didn't mention one...

& finally,
"and they can clean an entire tank (poo and all)"
Ghost Shrimp do NOT eat poo. Simple as that.

Sin

Yes, there is a nice 3-stage bio filter in the tank. And yes, I was doing weekly water changes. The problem is that whenever I do gravel cleaning, all the plants in my tank become uprooted. And it's a pain trying to get them back into place, plus I've already killed one plant by disrupting it.

With three bettas, they poop like crazy, and in two days, I can see it sitting on the bottom of the tank, and it's not very appealing. I can't leave the filter on all the way, because the bettas aren't happy, so when something hits bottom, it stays there. It's not leftover food sitting there, it's waste. (My smallest betta doesn't eat from the surface, she scrounges around the bottom and eats the leftovers.)

If you have any ideas on how to make cleaning easier, I'd appreciate it. I do use a syphon with a vacuum attachment. It's just that no matter what I try, my plants go floating away. (And even more junk is left floating in the water.)

cheap turkey baster from the dollar store to spot remove waste. Also, I would be going to the LFS for weights for those plants