Huh, this thread has become a self fulfilling prophesy, and I sense its life will soon come to an end....
Anyway, AF330i, there are, even in the damsel cycling world, different ideas. It depends on whether you want a "HARD" cycle in which case you use 1 damsel per 5 gallons or so of water and still feed heavily, resulting in very high ammonia levels (at which point the food is cut back virtually to nothing). But you can basically "soft" cycle with fewer damsels and not overfeeding...and if you have cured LR in the tank then you may not see any spike at all (in which case, IMO, there is no realy cruelty involved).
The first case, obviously, is pretty darn harsh, and few fish will make it through. Even damsels tend to die. If this is your plan, then I would personally discourage it in favor of other cheaper, equally effective and more humane approaches.
If it is more the second case, where you have LR or intend to minimize the ammonia spike, then I don't see a great deal of harm in it except in the pocket. But there is no real guarantee that any individual fish is hardy enough to survive it. By definition, it is an unstable period in a tank, unlike anything an animal would really encounter in the wild.
But, yes, lots of opinions because everyone's experience is going to be different. The problem is that people try and apply those experiences to other situations, where they may not apply at all.
