first fishes

Hey everyone, I have a maybe simple question. I have a 75gallon with salinity of 1.024 and temp at 78F with 4 inches of sand bed. I dont have any LR yet but I was going to buy maybe 30 pounds to start and maybe 2 fish, I heard this was a way to kick start the tank to cycle. If this is correct please let me know! Or what method would you use? If a method like this is available please let me know what type of fish is best to start out with in a brand new tank! Thank You

 

from what ive read, damsels seem to be the starters of choice, because of hardiness and cost. but this is also coming from me trying to be helpful and im also fairly new at this, and if ive steered you wrong, i apologize.

 

a single yellow tailed damsel

 

I personally don't recommend cycling with a fish. Live rock is good enough to cycle with, and you can even toss a couple raw shrimp in there and let them rot to kick start everything.

The reason I don't recommend using fish is for 2 reasons. First it's usually a damsel. Damsels get mean and aggressive and tend to attack new fish down the road. I once had to completely disassemble one of my fish tanks because of 1 stupid damsel. Usually saltwater fish attack con specifics, but not damsels, they attack anything. The exception to that rule is the green chromis damsel. But generally those need to be in schools and I wouldn't recommend a school of fish for a new tank, either.

Second, even though damsels are a dime a dozen and I hate them, it's still pretty mean to subject a fish to that. They will be living in extremely poor conditions and although they can survive, it's just kinda cruel.

 

You should post this in the "New to the Hobby" thread. I would put more LR in your tank. Also how much LS do you have? I would put the LR in your tank and the sand and let the cycle happen. I would not add any fish for weeks even a few months. Slow and steady to have a happy healthy environment. Listen to the people on here. I did and my tank(knock on wood) has been really healthy and happy. Happy reefing.

 

I cycled using a single yellow tail damsel. I planned on keeping him and have. He was a little mean to some of the new fish, but got over it and now is a model citizen. I feel that damsels are generally underrated as a possible fish. They are very hard, colorful and stay relatively small. Yellow tails are traditionally not as aggressive as other damsel species. I love mine.

 

I have salt water mollies that you could use to cycle your tank. This matter is not as effective as live rock, but they do not get aggressive, and if you want them I will give you a couple

 

Unfortunately everywhere around me the LR is $9 a pound so It is real expensive IMO.
Hey when you said raw shrimp, you mean like the shrimp that we get from the store? If so why and how does that help and so on.. lol! Also is the Damsel one of the only starting fish you can throw in, cause honestly I dont think it even looks cool. No offense to any of the Damsel lovers! And If it is the only to start with, will it matter what type of Damsel?

Thank You

 

Oh, damsels don't stay small, I can say that for sure. The one I had for a few years got about 4 inches long and 2 inches high. Any harassment from him was severe. Not only that but as far as the colors go, damsels lose that as they get older, too. Domino damsels lose their spots, velvet damsels lose their blue neon streaks (the damsel I had to take my tank apart for was a velvet - started out nice but was just black in the end), and so on and so forth. Have you ever seen a fully grown chromis damsel? They are HUGE! 3 or 4 inches or even more!

 

Hey Dustin, I would love that! I live in Wadsworth! Thats soo sweet that your near! Where do you get most of your supplies? fish? Live Rock and so on?

Wow I trully wouldnt mind a free fish!
Thank you bro