Need to get a fish?!?

brycewood

brycewood

Member
So I went to my LFS, I am not the biggest fan of it. Only one guy there has a clue.
I went there, looked at LR, but nothing seemed quite right for my tank.
I was there to finish my cleaning crew.
Talking to guy as I picked stuff out.
He informed me I should get a fish asap, that I need the fishes waste to keep the aquarium ready. I should get a clown or damsel to keep waste products in the stream to keep the cycle or I'll get an ammonia spike. Now I have never heard this. I have heard you start feeding your tank a little before you get your fish to get it used to a little more input of wastes.
Please tell me this guy was 100% out of left field.
What about people without any fish?
The guy didn't even know ---- about my set-up. Didn't ask about filtration, size, anything.
I am thinking this guy was just a grade A

[hr]
. He tried to tell me I was wrong that I don't need a fish.
I wanted to hit the guy just for being so damn bossy about my hobby, personally I like inverts alot just as is.
So anyhow I now have a cleaning crew consisting of: two turbos, two astrea, three scarlets(one's huge), and one camel shrimp(aiptasia assasin).
Oh, and I know camel's attack corals, I've been told that 100 times now.
 
lion_crazz

lion_crazz

Active Member
yes, the guy was wrong. Many people who work at lfs' (me not being one of them) are misinformed and think that you need fish in order to cycle a tank. That is absolutely not true. If you cycle your tank with a dead cocktail shrimp, live rock, or just decomposing fish food, they are all producing the same purpose.
What did you cycle your tank with?
 
brycewood

brycewood

Member
Dead shrimp, and live rock
The live rock they sell, they call it cured, but it's not fully cured really. I bought pieces that smelt good though. It went through the whole cycle, it's been up for 4 months now. I've had no ammonia since and nitrates have been under 20 for over a month. It's a small tank so I didn't want to add to much at once and my local store is hit and miss on when they have inverts so it's taken me about 1 month to get a full clean-up crew.
Should I be feeding the tank now, with my cleanup crew?
I haven't been yet.
 
lion_crazz

lion_crazz

Active Member
Yeah, feed it a little bit so that the inverts have a little something to eat besides the detritus that comes off the live rock.
 
brycewood

brycewood

Member
That's what I was starting to think.
I've only had the shrimp and 2 snails till today. So I figured those would be fine, now I figure it's time to feed it a little.
Thanks for the adivice!!
 
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