After reading through a post about someone fishless cycling I had a thought that I have never considered before. How long do the bacteria live before they begin to die off because of lack of food. The bacteria in the tank are able to convert upwards of 5ppm in as little as say 12 hours at the end of a truly cycled tank right? So not only can they convert but they are used to converting that much ammonia. So when you go to add your first fish you goal is obviously to get all the levels down to zero. But in my experience with my oscar for instance it took nearly 4 days to get an ammonia reading. So how does the bacteria stay alive long enough to even be useful? just some thoughts to ponder.