Water Changes?

Okay when I change the water using a siphon hose do I remove the fish or can I just leave them in there as I go? I have 3 phantom tetras and 3 gold pristell.

 

move the fish never risk their lives

 

Acutally, moving the fish is much more stressful than leaving them there. Most fish are quick & smart enough to avoid the siphon. I never move my fish when I siphon and so far the only thing I've ever sucked up is one of my african dwarf frogs and that's just because I started siphoning under a decoration w/o looking first and adf's aren't all that quick. She stopped half way up the large tube and was stunned but not hurt.

-Chelle

 

Unless your doing a drastic change 60% + chelle is right, fish are pretty smart and will proby prefer dodging the hose over beaing moved from tank to holder and back.

edit; if you really worried about it then syphon the water into a buket that way you can just net anyones that do happen to fall into the bucket.

 

i leave my fish in their tanks when i siphon. in one tank the goldfish get excited and follow around behind my siphon eating gunk that's getting stirred up i think it's the most exciting thing for them aside from regular feeding times. lol.

i've accidentally sucked up a guppy before ... he went on an adventure through the hose and into a bucket, but he was fine when i put him back in his tank. maybe a little disgruntled, but he survived. i'm much more careful now!

 

:? i guess that would work to. but i havnt had probolems with stress on my fish with moving them. i have to anyway because my neontetras are not fast enough when they dont know what is going on they kinda slow down. they my angel fish (adorable) follows my movementsand when i put the pithon in the water she follows it around.

 

I also never move my fish... as I have no where to put them. But if you are gentel and don't move really fast you should have no problems.

What I do is take an old kitchen chair for my bucket to set on, then I start the siphon and hold my finger over the end of the little part of the tube when I change places with the bigger part. That way it isn't a full time flow of water ... you control starting and stopping of the water... did that make since?? lol

I only do partial changes. I only clean out my entire tank once a year or so.

 

Thanks I was worried thet I'd have to take out my fish for a 20% water chan and since I have no were to put them that would be bad.