"Edward Cowling London UK" wrote in message
...
In message , Christopher Lewis
writes
My girlfriend bought me a 100 litre tank for my birthday a few weeks ago.
I
filled it with gravel a few fake plants and water and left the filter and
heater running for a few days.

I then went to my local fish shop and bought some small fish recommended
by
them to cycle the tank.


Sorry at that point you lost my patience. I think we should take a leaf
out of the current trend for "instant offence" and protest outside your
house :-)

Never use live fish to cycle a tank, they are as you say LIVE creatures.

Feed an empty tank. I know it sounds daft, but a small pinch of food every
morning for about 5-6 weeks will very effectively get the bugs going in
the tank.

Personally I'd like to see a license to keep fish introduced, with basic
training considered mandatory.



I don't know about training and a license, that seems a tad expensive and
would lead to government overhead and all that jazz. What I think the fish
shops should have to implement is a basic testing system for each major
class/type of fish. Just basic questions to determine if the person would
be suitable to keep fish. Questions like: What temp should tropical fish be
kept at generally? What is a cycle? How many times do you feed these fish
and with what type of food? I think that would be a great solution and it
would embarrass a lot of ignorant buyers into not making the purchase until
they knew more.



Sean