What Fish Are Suited For An "immature Tank?"

[TwoTankAmin]

You are correct i got the number wrong for NH3. It wasn't .022 which was the number for .9 ppm, For 1.4 TA the NH3 was actually .032 ppm which is more toxic. The mortality rate was 2% which does mean that if one has 100 fish that 2 died. My point was that if you took 100 healthy cardinals and put them into a mature and fully cycled tank, the odds are decent that in 4 days two are likely to have died from causes other than ammonia being present. And note the 0 mortality at .9 ppm TA and .022 ppm NH3. I am not so sure they would have gotten those numbers using a 100 fish sample though.
 
Here is the table from that study:

 
But what should amaze most folks looking at the above information is that cardinal tetras exposed to TA of 13.1 ppm for 4 days did not all die. In fact only 15% died. And no this doesn't mean that no harm was done to the rest, they could all well have had major problems. But what is does do is make me wonder how any of these fish could survive in that much ammonia for 4 days and not die since neon has assured us they can't survive a much lower level and for what may be a shorter time. Exactly how long is a mini-cycle and how high does ammonia go and for how long is it present? And how can a mini-cycle kill all the cardinals yet 4 days in 35.6 ppm of ammonia still did not kill more than 75%? These two facts would seem to be at odds. How do you explain that? During any cycle from full to mini, ammonia appears peaks and is down to zero about 1/3 of the way through. If a mini cycle takes about 10 days total, that means ammonia is present for 3 or 4 which is about the study time. Except the levels in the study were constant and in a "cycle" they are not.

 

[NeonBlueLeon]

Since "mini-cycles" have not been studied, and have not be quantified, I guess the questions about mini-cycle parameters cannot be answered.
 
"The odds" of something have little to no place in a real scientific discussion.  Unknown variables need to investigated, or at least acknowledged appropriately.
 
Please do not falsely speak for me.  Never have I said that I would expect all cardinals to die at such low concentrations of ammonia.  I simply stated my opinion that cardinals are sensitive to ammonia.
 
This conversation has gone far from what I was looking to accomplish from this thread.  We are now trying to analyze statistics of mortality rates at certain concentrations of ammonia, yet my ultimate goal is to have zero fatalities.  I come to these forums not to look for scientific evidence, but rather word-of-mouth and experience.  This hobby has survived decades based on that, so I do not see a need for hard, scientific data yet.  And believe me when I say that I have faith science, I am a working chemist.  The arguments presented so far have been convoluted and off topic, which makes this discussion tedious.  I am trying to have a scientific discussion here, but I have not felt a respectable response yet. 
 
TwoTankAmin, I do not wish to further entertain this discussion for these reasons, and especially for the reason that you falsely accuse me of saying something that I haven't.  If this were to happen in a real scientific discussion, I would withdraw immediately, rather than try to force the discussion in the right direction.  Therefore, I exercise the right to do exactly that now.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

I am happy to end the conversation with your exact words from your initial post which came from your mouth and were not put there by me.
 

 For some fish, just as an example cardinal tetras, I always here that it is not recommended they be put into an immature tank.  As I understand it, they are sensitive fish and may go belly-up if there was a mini-cycle.  Therefore, waiting until the tank has matured is key because a mature tank will be less likely to go through a mini-cycle and kill the cardinal tetras.

 
That statement is still not true. Cardinals happen to be pretty pH tolerant, ammonia tolerant and fairly temperature tolerant as well. They should do fine in a newly cycled tank. The greater problem with cardinals has to do with the condition they are in when acquired by the average fish keeper. They are a commodity fish and are unfortunately treated as such in many instances.