So you plan a tank, you plan a fish in cycle and it works, you know it works because you've done it before but according to some sources it doesn't work and it will kill your fish. You then read instances of fishless cycles that are supposed to be safe but in fact - killed the fish. A friend follows a fishless guidelines down to the last letter and low and behold it killed the fish. No consistency. You have to do fish in anyway after the fishless cycle then it becomes a guessing game as to how many fish you can add to the tank. If you add too many you'd failed because you'll spike the fish. If you add too few you also failed because your bacteria culture will reduce to the amount of available ammonia there is in the tank. Bottom line - you might as well do a fish in cycle in the first place and be patient. No consistency in methodology at all.
So you plan some fish, fish that you are familiar with and had experience with in the past. You go on a website and check compatibility with your GH and KH for these fish. One website says 10.4 to 15 dkh and another says 7.4 to 10dkh. Conflicting figures on all the major websites and on here too as well as my LFS. No consistency. Who do you turn to?
Fish compatibility with each other, conflicting advice on here, LFS and reputable websites. No just slightly conflicting but completely contradictory. Again, who do you turn to?
No one wants to see animals suffer, no one wants to see fish in poor conditions least of all myself. The reason I started keeping fish again is because of this virus, I can't do anything else, if I don't do something positive I'll go barmy because all my hobbies are locked down. But I can't do it like this, my heads a shed.
I'm going to have to pick a source of information and stick with it so if I come on here and say I put a fish in my tank that you may not agree with, it's not because I want to see fish suffer or that I haven't thought it out properly, it's because I chose to use information from what I think is the best source available to me.
So my apologies in advance if I offend anyone for sticking fish A with fish B.
Yes I understand completely were your coming from, when I first started in this hobby I became overwhelmed very quickly with everything that is involved with a tank. I used to think it was just a box with water and you throw a couple fish in there lol. You could imagine how I was when I was hearing things I never heard before in my life like ammonia, nitrite,nitrate,ph,Nitrogen Cycle it was really confusing. But The biggest thing I learned about this hobby is that nobody's tank is exactly the same your tank can be similar to someone else's tank but its not the same. If you have multiple tanks in your house none of those tanks are the same, they all have different water chemistry, substrate,fish etc... With that being said everybody's experiences will be different since everyones tank is different the results will always be different for ex: 1 certain ich medication might cure ich for someone within a week, and they will recommend the product to others. That same ich medication might not even cure ich at all for someone else's tank, And it may cure ich within 2 weeks for someone else. So the information you see online is more a guideline to the right path, there is no set rules in this hobby really.
What works for you Works for you! If it works it works! even if people say its wrong if it works it works.
I completely understand your frustrations I remember recently I just started taking care of aquatic plants, And when I was trying to learn on how to take care of them I was overloaded with too much information, it was a little stressful. I was completely confused about fertilizers,micro and macro nutrients, lighting, par, best light. When I would search for a specific plant 1 forum would say they need this amount of lighting, a YouTube video on the plant will say they don't need that type amount of light they need this etc... Its not easy. I did as much research as I can and even when I was not 100% sure about what I was doing I just got the plant and hoped for the best luckily it is now thriving in the tank. Most of this hobby is experimenting just trust your gut and do it and if something does not work try to find out the reasoning behind why it failed and improve so that the next time you do not make that same mistake and when you keep doing that the hobby will eventually become a lot easier. The beginner stages are the most difficult times that is why most people quit at this stage since it is confusing, you gotta keep your head up when a fish dies a plant dies fish tank is infected and reflect on the reasoning behind it and see what you can do better to prevent that from happening again. when you do that you get a little better and improve in the hobby every time.
When I first started I have killed albino cories,pepered cories,neons,bettas etc.. I lost almost my whole tank to ich. It really sucked since I really was passionate about it but every time I tried my fish kept dying. Even when I was mad and frustrated, with every death I reflected on it and see what I can do better. There is always room for improvement, and you also get better.
Most important thing is to just try out the fish and see how they do, sometimes information can be confusing, the people are really just trying their best to help you and give their knowledge to you. So sometimes it might be cruel or not. But if your not sure just buy the fish and see how they do and if they die well now yk that they can't live in your conditions. I remember 1 time when I was looking into buying neon tetras someone said that they will not survive in 7 or higher ph but other people were saying they can live in a ph of 7 the information was inconsistent like you said. I ended up just saying whatever an bought them anyway and they have been living for more than a year now. Everyone will have different experiments. The person who told me they won't survive maybe he had bad experiences with them when they lived in a ph of 7 or higher.
MOST IMPORTANTLY
If you want to get good at something your gonna have to deal with the tough times,mistakes,deaths and persevere after failure
Im pretty sure multiple people who are consider experts, when they started keeping fish have killed 1000's of fish before becoming expert on keeping fish, that's what made them an expert. You learn from your mistakes. There is no set rule for this hobby it's impossible everyone's tank is unique so it is impossible for everyone to have the same results. Use the information here as a general rule.
for ex: people on the forum will say to do the nitrogen cycle but you do not think it is necessary since your friend said he has not did it, you buy fish and 1 week later they die you buy more the next week they die. If you reflect and examine you will start to think maybe they are right about the nitrogen cycle. You will learn the hard way but at the end of the day you will learn and improve and not make the same mistake again.
Obviously there are some rules to follow t like ammonia and nitrite should always be at 0.
Fish in cycles do work! the reason why people are against is that we do not believe you should let a fish go into a tank with a toxic compound when there are options you can use without involving the fish. In the wild fish are always in a natural clean environement. We find it a bit cruel to make a fish swim in ammonia when there are ways to do it without fish. Are jobs as fish keepers are to insure are fish are thriving are living their best life. When you do fish in cycles with a fish they will most of the time not live to their maximum potential since they will have the scars from being exposed to constant ammonia levels and will be there for the rest of their lives. We believe it is not fair to them. You can still continue fish in cycles if we want we are just trying to tell you are opinion on it but you can follow what we say or not its your choice. At the end of the day it's your tank.
