starter fish

J

jazytunes

New member
My 30 tank is ready to start adding livestock. I have 175 watt MH on it and am planning for it to be a reef aquarium. I was wondering what would be a good starter fish to add to get the water to start cycling. I'm planning to keep peacful fish such as gobies and bleenies so i don't think i want to start out with a damsel (bad past experiences with aggression). Any suggestions would be helpful.
Thanks.
 
I agree on the "no live fish for cycling." How long has your tank been running? I didn't add any fish to the tank for about 5 months. If you want to cycle, add some live sand, some LR, and a piece of store-bought fish or shrimp partially blended up. That should be plenty to get the tank cycling. After the tank has cycled, I would consider the most peaceful, shy fish you want to own long term to be put in first. I personally chose a firefish, and it did very well until likely eaten by a hitchhiking mantis shrimp which I still have yet to catch.
 
As others said, don't add fish until the cycle is done. That means no ammonia or nitrite, and nitrate under control. And, like Minh said, add the most shy and non-agressive fish first.
 
Depends on the tank, I just don't have any nitrates.

If you're using lots of live rock, especially uncured, no need to even add the shrimp. Some people just use fish food, by the way.
 
If you get uncured live rock (drsfostersmith.com has really nice fiji for cheap), your tank will be totally cycled by the time it cures (1 month).

No need to torture fish when you need live rock anyway.
 
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