Cycling a tank with fresh shrimp

I read (and I feel stupid for not copying the link down) that using fresh shrimp to cycle a tank is not good.

Here is part of what I found.

These statements wer taken from a nice book titled "salt water aquarium guide" and seem to be saying that a decaying raw shrimp is produces bacteria that is actually harmful for the thank. check it...

"the nitrifying bacteria that detoxify the toxic products in the water are primarlily concentrated in the filter bed substrate, although they are present on all surfaces of the aquarium. In the filter bed, provided conditions are favorable to the bacteria, they will multiply rapidly. These bacteria are classified as aerobic, since they require the presence of dissolved oxygen in order to carry out their filter activities. In contrast, other types of bacteria termed anaerobic decompose organic materials without the presence of oxygen. However, their activites produce substances such as hydrogen sulfide and methane that are toxic to aquatic life."

Ok so that led me to think that maybe cycling your tank with a raw shrimp was counterproductive as the bacteria that decomposes organic material is the anaerobic kind that makes methane and hydrogen sulfide.

Also, the point of putting the raw shrimp in the tank is to produce ammonia, starting the cycle, but it also says this....

"ammonia originates from the decomposition of nitrogen-containing organics such as plants and food. Sources of ammonia in the aquarium water are the fish, other organisms, and decaying food."

and as stated earlier, decomposing organic material is decomposed by anaerobic bacteria, the kind that produces the bad stuff, while the kind that decomposes food, plant matter, and poo is the good kind.

 

This is not a scientific journal.... but a guide.... a fellow hobbyists opinion, if you will. It's a load of BS, IMO. I've cycled over 30 tanks in the last couple of years using just the shrimp/silverside method. I wanna see a controlled study and statistics to support their claims. Not saying their ideas are not fact based..... but that doesn't make their interpretation correct in application.

I'm not even quite sure what they are trying to say....

I don't use a shrimp source of bacteria.... but a source of ammonia only.

Both bacterias are very important... is he trying to say the anaerobic is not?

That last paragraph..... "Say wha?". They have really tilted the facts and are not correct. And food, plant matter and poo... that's ALL decomposing organic material.