Using Guppies to cycle a saltwater tank?

[Somethingsfishy]

I heard you can use guppies to help cycle since they can live in salt water...is that statement true or false??????????? I have seen guppies in my LFS saltwater tanks alive and well eating off the bottom and everything...is this possible? or just a myth or false statement?

[Jandree22]

FW mollies can live in dilute saltwater..(S.G. <=1.014) But will probably not do so good in a S.G. of 1.023. Male bettas will jump outa the tank and bite your head off if you put them in saltwater:pirate:

[Jandree22]

btw, you use damsels to cycle saltwater tanks

[Christopher Marks]

There's no need to use any fish to cycle your system. Just use liverock or livesand.

[reef93]

Just drop one/two raw shrimps to cycle, no need to kill live fish.

[caja]

You really don't even need the shrimp. It will cycle on it's own.

[robertjag]

Or just pour in some Turbo Start 900 (Fritz.) Cycled my tank in a week.

[westkyracer]

Or you can slowly acclimate a molly into your tank. I did it one time just too see and it was fine. But you have to add the salt to the bag very slowly. But if it is not snowing outside and you have better things to do just get a damsel if you feel you need livestock to cycle your tank.

[dickwayne]

Or like chris said you can cycle your tank w live rock instead of stressing out a fish or putting nasty shrimp in your tank

[cuteios]

I remember someone told me to pee in the tank to get the cycle started. Talk about drastic measures.

[BlackSumbel]

You can acclimate guppies and mollies to full salt water. I'd stick with "Wild type" (feeder) guppies or mollies for best results.

 

Slowly raise the salinity in a -separate- container. Give it about a week of small doses to get the salinity up.

 

I'd advise you to -only- put males in. Otherwise you'll find babies hiding in there for weeks (even months). Of course, if you're going to put a predatory fish in there later, you might not care.

 

Sticking with the wild types, you're gonna be more successful. Endlers Livebearers -were- commonly found in tidal-type pools, so they're generally almost brackish to begin with.

 

-Sumbel.

[onthefly]

add a drop of ammonium bicarbonate.........it's like "jolt" for your bacteria

[NanoBound]

Heck...I just cut off a piece of frozen bass out of my freezer that I caught in the lake. Seemed to work pretty good for me!! Has anyone else ever done this?