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You probably have more choices in this department than I do up here but very small black stone may be quite hard to come by.
River pebbles are usually no smaller than pea gravel and I’ve never seen all black pea gravel. I would love to see it though - be very cool.
You can find crushed black lava, Amazon has it if nowhere else, for horticultural use, but for bettas a very coarse substrate may be a problem.
Too many bettas tend to make contact with their substrate just swimming close to the bottom or even sleeping on it. It can do a lot of abrasion damage.
The closest thing I can think of is a light grey colour when dry and would be a darker grey when wet. It would have to be seriously sifted & you’d lose half of it at least that way.
Unfortunately, it’s made of limestone which would leach loads of calcium into the water. Usually called screenings - which are a mix of 1/4” bits plus finer and very fine particles - meant to compact tightly under paving stones etc.
Black river pebbles that are a lot larger, around 2” give or take, aren’t so hard to find. They can look nice but they are kind’a chunky.
Be interesting to see what you come up with.
