Setting up a tropical tank

This is probably a thick question but what does cycling mean? I followed the advice on the box with the tank which stated how much room each fish needed and said my tank could hold a max of 4 which I ended up with. I do think 2 is much better though as they have now grown really big. Do you think the fact that they only came into the pet shop the previous day had any effect? I have read fish can get stressed easily and I wonder if being moved around so much had any effect on them. My childhood tank had mollies, fan tails, neon tetras, sword fish and angel fish. I believe the tetras are quite aggressive though and have come to believe they were responsible for nipping at the fan tails. They always seemed to die in a specific order too:fan tails, mollies, tetras, sword fish and finally the angel fish which seemed to be the hardiest of them all. I am a little put off the goldfish at the pet shop though as I looked at them the other day and they are all undergoing treatment. They seemed healthy enough though.

Thanks for the advice. I guess I need to do a bit more productive googling as I found loads on how to set up the tank with the pump etc but not the type of fish.

I know not everyone cycles their tank before adding a large amount of fish and realize some people don't think its important. I run a business with 20 tanks up now and sell fish, so the information I'm telling you is exactly what I tell somebody that comes to my business. People shouldn't put the max number of fish into their tanks. I realize some of you may think she is a business woman, so wouldn't she want to sell more fish. If you put the highest number of fish possible and they die, then you may say fish are to hard to keep and no longer have fish. Fish aren't suppose to be a hard pet to keep and 2 is what I would suggest not 4. Stress kills fish and please don't buy fish that just came into the store the day before, as they aren't likely to survive. The water conditions at the store are likely to be different than your tank causing a lot of stress to the fish. Don't buy any fish that isn't healthy. If its missing fins, has fungus or any other disease you don't need that kind of trouble. Go to another store to find fish. If there isn't another store, then ask your friends that have fish where they purchased the fish. My first fish didn't come from a store, as I received them from a high school that no longer had the room for them. I have purchased fish from stores; however, I look closely at how the fish are swimming, are all the fish healthy and for my community tanks are the fish getting along in the tank at the store. If the fish are fighting at the store, then they will fight in my tanks.

Thanks for the response. Gives me an idea of the kinds of fish that can live in a community tank.

Thanks for your response. I guess I considered the tank to be large because of it's size and the amount of room it takes up but I guess when you consider the fish have to live in it I guess it isn't that big. Thanks for the info on working out the fish to water ratio. Would hate to think I have overfilled or growth stunted any fish.

Thanks for your response. Your tank sounds pretty exotic, I don't think my local pet shop has anything so grand. It does have a few notes on the different types of fish but it all gets a bit confusing after a while. Probably a good idea to ask the staff then I guess.