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my friend told me that i should start my salt water tank with damsels, because they are cheap and hardy. what do you think
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I think that you need to cycle the tank without fish. Dead shrimp at your local grocery store are even cheaper than Damsels. Toss one of those in the tank and 4-6 weeks later you have a cycled tank.
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Fishkeeping GURU
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Amen to that! Fishless cycling is the way to go. With live rock in the tank it goes really quickly too. Much safer for the fish, and you don't get stuck with super aggressive fish that you can't stock anything after.
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| I THINK DAMSELS ARE SOME OF THE BEST FISH FOR A SALTWATER SETUP. THEY ARE COLORFUL,LIVELY, AND ENGAGING. USING THEM TO CYCLE YOUR TANK IS A GOOD WAY TO GET THE BENEFICIAL BACTERIA NEEDED FOR YOUR FILTRATION SYSTEM. EVERY TANK I HAVE INCLUDES DAMSELS. I HAVE NEON OR VELVET DAMSELS,BLUE DAMSELS,YELLOWTAIL DAMSELS,THREE STRIPE AND DOMINO DAMSELS. I ALSO HAVE SEVERAL SERGEANT MAJOR FISH WHICH I THINK ARE IN THE SAME FAMILY AS DAMSELS AND HAVE PROVEN EQUALLY HARDY. PLEASE CONSIDER CAREFULLY WHICH DAMSELS YOU WOULD LIKE TO HAVE AS PERMANENT MEMBERS OF YOUR SETUP AND THEN USE THEM TO CYCLE. I WISH YOU GOOD LUCK WITH SALTWATER FISHKEEPING.
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Responsible fish keeping is something that needs to be promoted more and cycling a tank in this day with fish is just not responsible. It can be done without them and it should be done without them since the cycle subjects them to such harsh environments that does in the long run shorten their life span.
BTW. please turn off your Capslock, posting in all caps is equivalent to yelling online.
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"The highest compliment that you can pay me is to say that I work hard every day, that I never dog it" - Wayne Gretzky
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Fishkeeping GURU
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Well said. There are situations that require cycling with fish, but they are rare, and when it is not required, why put a living creature through the pain and possible death that cycling with fish can bring? It's also a lot harder since it requires daily water testing and possibly daily water changes too. I don't know about you, but I would much rather test the water every couple of days and only have to do one water change in that month, than to do it every day. Most proponents of cycling with fish today seem to just not have an understanding of fishless cycling...I run into this with my lfs a lot. They're appalled that I use ammonia to cycle my freshwater tanks, but they don't understand the process.
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To be honest with you Hailey, I can't really think of a situation where cycling with fish is necessary. If you can get access to an ammonia source or pre-cycled filter material then cycling would not require fish at all.
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"The highest compliment that you can pay me is to say that I work hard every day, that I never dog it" - Wayne Gretzky
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Fishkeeping GURU
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I'm thinking of cases like when you are rescuing a fish for a friend or something...I have seen that come up here. If it's either the toilet for the fish or an uncycled tank, the tank is the right choice.  That's one that popped into my head, but I know I have seen other situations like that. They're not ideal, but they happen.
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