Why large weekly water changes are beneficial

[GlassWalker]

and also.. they want to sell fish. if you go away and do a fishless cycle you're not buying fish (and food and everything else) and the chances are you will go somewhere else for them when the tank is finally ready.

From an economic point of view, the fish are a means to an end. I don't run a store, but as far as I understand it, the common fish are practically loss leaders. Profits on them are slim and I'd question if they'll even break even on running costs. The bigger money is made on dry goods. I think they'd have a good opportunity still to sell the "what you need to get going" with a fishless cycle, but do agree a lot of people probably wont want to have a fishless tank sat around waiting for something to happen. Maybe a ton of plants and bacterial supplementation could plug that gap. While plants aren't terribly expensive, the bacterial supplements are. I don't know why I'm still surprised but on my local facebook fish sales group people can and do haggle down the last penny on what I'd consider is already a giveaway pricing on both livestock and kit. How any LFS mange to stay open is something I don't think I'll ever understand.

[TropicalFishForums]

[Asco1104]

That's true, some people just don't see the wonder in growing bacteria