When You Change the Water in a Freshwater Fish Tank, do you Remove the Fish First???

Question

I'm About to Change About 20 Percent of my Water with an Aquarium Vac and Would Like to Know if I should Remove the Fish First, I Have Three Golden Barbs, Three Neon Tetras, One Glowlight Tetra, One Flame Gourami, One Bamboo Shrimp, and Six Ghost Shrimp.

Answer 1

if you have the time, it would prevent you from losing the smaller ones into the vac....but if you're careful , its not a requirement.

Answer 2

Check out this little how to video.

http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-clea...

No you do not take the fish out.  

Answer 3

no you do not

Answer 4

i would remove the shrimp just in case

Answer 5

You don't need to take the fish out.  It would actually be much less stressful for them if you didn't.  Just be careful of your shrimp that they don't get sucked up.

Also you only need to rinse your filter media, not change it.  You lose a lot of your good bacteria when you change the media out and adding Cycle is a total waste of money.

**

Answer 6

Well I remove them to clean the tank better with no problems so if you wanna do a really good job of cleaning your tank without worries about hurting your fish it would be best to take the fish out also the glowlight tetra needs to be in a school of at least 2 more glowlights

Answer 7

well i have goldfish and i keep my fish in there, so does everyone i know but you have to be carefull that the fish don't go up the vaccum when you're not looking, many injuries can be cause like that =]

Answer 8

I don't. They'll be fine if there's a quater of water in there.

Answer 9

no you won't need to remove the fish

Answer 10

There is no need to remove your fish when only doing a partial water change.  The only thing that you will need to do is either move your decor around so you can vac under each or remove the decor and rinse off depending on how dirty it is.  Remember that you will need to dechlorinate your water before adding.  Also you will need to use an additive such as Cycle or StressZyme to replace your lost beneficial bacteria.  This is also the time to replace your filter media.  Always check your water parameters after doing a change to make sure everything is in check.