Fish in or our for major rescaping?

[David14259]

I've been wondering if its less stressful on my fish to catch them and transfer them to a bucket while I'm doing a major reaquascaping of their tank, or leave them in there for probably 20-30mins of terror and pretty cloudy water for a while after?

Does anyone have opinions or methods they use?

Oh, how do I keep from squashing my shrimp?

Thanks!

 

[zenkatydid]

what do you eman by major rescaping? if you're just uprooting and moving plants around, i would leave them there. if you're taking everything - plants and hardscape - out of the tank, and re-starting, i would put them in a dark bucket. 20-30 minutes doesn't sound like a very major rescape

 

[Jchillin]

As zenkatydid mentions, it is dependent on how much rescaping is being done. Moving around a lot of small stem plants is completely different than moving say, one large Amazon sword coupled with a huge piece of driftwood.

What I've found to be pretty workable is to plan rescaping around a PWC. Move the plants, then do the PWC. Another method is to do a little bit at a time.

 

[plecoperson]

I would move them out while you work if it's a big re-do. They can panic with all the activity and hurt themselves bashing around if it's a tornado. I lost a fish last time I did it with them in the tank.

 

[Purrbox]

If the rescape is just a matter of pulling plants, trimming, and (re)planting I'd leave the inhabitants where they are. The one exception is if you have more skittish fish that seem to get overly stressed by this sort of thing. Now if you adding in a change in substrate it's definately time to remove the fish to prevent them from being injured.

As to avoiding squashing the shrimp, just make sure that you slow your movements down enough to allow them to get out of the way and they will.

 

[CaysE]

Shrimp are surprisingly quick when they sense something moving very close to them. Still, like purrbox said, just move a bit slower to make sure they get out of the way.

 

[David14259]

Thanks for all your input. I'm going to be moving most of the plants are moving the driftwood and burying it partially in the gravel.

I think I'll take the gourami and the shrimp out, he seems to like to nip at my hand while its in there, gets a bit annoying.

Thanks all, I'll post pics of the new design as soon as I get my "slight" algae problem under control.