I know as a newbie it is so easy to read "add fish right away" or "add fish in 48hrs" and turn around and hear fish keepers tell you that is not correct and to go another route.
You are excited to have a tank full of fish and it is easy to be impatient and most of all easy to think because you are told by LFS or a package of a fish related product that you can add fish right away or after 48hrs that it must be able to work.
Problem is... you add those fish and the next thing you know they are acting sick, gasping for air, develop ich, and even finrot. You test and test your water and you watch it become more and more toxic. You do massive PWC to try and keep your HARDY fish alive that are struggling to live. After WEEKS yes WEEKS of this stress as I call it, chances are you will watch your fish suffer and die. If they do make it, you spend some time trying to get them healthy again. You start to feel guilty as you realize more and more that fish have personalities and they feel pain. You realize you made them suffer when you didnt have to.
How do I know this? I did it myself. I know it is easy to think that people suggesting to fishless cycle are PETA loving, tree hugging people and it is easy to think "the fish can take it".
I thought the fish could take it. I had goldfish. They are very hardy fish. I put it in a tank to cycle and got attached to the guy. I watched one goldfish die, the other seemed bummed out, I watched him get sick and his back tail fin rot off and I did PWC constantly to save him. It seemed my tank would never cycle. It went on for weeks. All I wanted to do was save the fish because I felt so damn guilty for the torture I put him through. All the work I did to save him and it proved to be pointless. I realized I was wrong in the end.
In the end he died. That still bugs me. I didnt even like fish! I just got it for my daughter.
I got a 55gl tank and did it fishless and did it with pure pride. When it was done and I added my fish and they all to this day are still healthy it was a great feeling. I lost one Serpae Tetra and 1 pleco since I put up my 55gl tank. I have always done regular PWC and my tank is stable. No stress and no watching sick fish. The two deaths I had were far apart and just flukes from coming from the LFS and didnt make it. I have a nice stock of tropicals in my tank that thrive.
I went from not thinking much about fish to really enjoying the living beings they are. They have personality and feelings. My snail even has it. He sulks when he is grumpy. One of my pictus cats loves human attention and comes out of hiding and sits at the edge of the tank to see me. I went from goldfish to make my daughter happy to a 55gl tank full of tropicals for us BOTH. and I am planning my 125gl tank. I am hooked.
The moral of this story is. It is easy to think you can just throw fish in and cycle through. You can, but in the end many fish can not survive the toxic home you provide, they die and you have to restock. You will try to save them, a lot of work, stress and money down the drain and the guilt.
It is much easier to fishless cycle and not watch any living being in the tank suffer. It is hard to wait but it feels much better when you are done and something you can take pride in.
You have fish to look at, care for and enjoy. Shoving them in a toxic home just because you can not wait to have fish, is that really right?
just food for thought. We are not saying fishless cycle because we are tree huggers and what not. Cycling with fish is just down right torture and we owe them more then that.