How Can I Lower (fish) Stress During Cleaning Time?

Hello, so my 30 liter (8galon) tank currently holds 1 male gourami, 3 medaka killies and two snails. The thing is, the tank it rather tall than wide, and it has 7 live plants and 3 coconut houses, plastic seahorse and a drift wood in it. It makes the gourami very happy to have all the hiding space, but it makes impossible to clean the gravel without taking completely everything out. After I take out all the things, I also take some of the tank water in a bucket an take all the fish out. It is because they are very curious about the gravel vacuum. The fishes hide in a corner but then suddenly try to attack the pipe, or want to play with flying gravel or something. I already lost one of the medakas because it went on the vacuum ride and got injured. Since then I take the fishes out.

It is fine with me to take the time to take everything and everyone out, also the fishes seem ok with the bucket and they are very happy once I return them into clean organized tank. But I read recently that it is not good to take fishes out during cleaning time. It is true that they get stressed a lot when I try to net them out. And since I am getting green water (It has partial daylight, I keep light on only 3-5 hours a day and have plenty thriving plants to suck up nutrients, but still) I started doing water changes by the gravel vacuum 2x a week. I don't really mind the green-ish color, I just want to keep in under control so it doesn't turn into a pond lol.

But the real question is, since I don't want to risk more injuries by leaving the fishes in the tank and sucking them up with the vacuum, is there any way I can get them used to the net which I use to fish them out?

 

I think the bigger issue here is the size of your tank, it's a bit too small for the stock you have. It will probably stress the fish more during water changes as there isn't the space for them to get away from the vacuum. Are you looking at a tank upgrade in the future?

 

I think the bigger issue here is the size of your tank, it's a bit too small for the stock you have. It will probably stress the fish more during water changes as there isn't the space for them to get away from the vacuum. Are you looking at a tank upgrade in the future?

I am aware of this and it was way worse until couple days back, I had three honey dwarf gouramis in there ... I moved the two females into a bigger 50ish liter tank and I will move medakas there too and one of the snails. I will keep only one male in there and 1-2 his fry in a fry net and one snail. It was a bad advice in fish store. I knew about gouramis requiring more space, but I did not know about the honey dwarf gourami species and the guy at petshop said that a pair of them will be just fine in my aquarium because they are already fully grown and won't get any bigger anymore, and once I got them, another guy at pet shop told me the male will chase the female until she dies if I keep only one female, so he told me to get another female ... and there I was. That is also why I am trying to be extra careful with the water and trying to make this as much stress free for everyone as I can. The gouramis seem happy, they were even breeding in the small tank, that's what pushed me into buying bigger tank just for the ladies. I intentionally put foil background on two sides of aquarium and they have as much hiding space as they can handle. But they always come up when I sit in front of the tank to show off (or more likely get excited about feeding time) ^^

I think the bigger issue here is the size of your tank, it's a bit too small for the stock you have. It will probably stress the fish more during water changes as there isn't the space for them to get away from the vacuum. Are you looking at a tank upgrade in the future?

In my defense, it is my first tank and I only bought the first fishes maybe two months ago. So I did not know any better. But I am trying to fix it This forum is super helpful during the first aquarium journey

 

In my defense, it is my first tank and I only bought the first fishes maybe two months ago. So I did not know any better. But I am trying to fix it This forum is super helpful during the first aquarium journey

Fully understand! You're not the first and definitely won't be the last! We all make mistakes when first starting out, I've definitely made a few even though I researched well. Good on you for trying to fix it though! Do you turn the light off during cleaning? That can sometimes help settle them, although I do all my cleaning with the lights on but I have a 130L tank

 

I put just a small amount of filter floss inside my vacuum pipe so that if a fish or shrimp gets up in there, they can't go all the way, I also use a small pump to do this instead of the python system, but will work either way. You can also pinch the hose line if gravel or fish gets up in the tube to reduce the pressure to get them back out with a soft shake.

 

I've also cut a piece of netting and rubberbanded over the opening. Being cheap, I just used the discarded bag from my Halos and cut a piece to fit over the end of the tube hehe.

 

Fully understand! You're not the first and definitely won't be the last! We all make mistakes when first starting out, I've definitely made a few even though I researched well. Good on you for trying to fix it though! Do you turn the light off during cleaning? That can sometimes help settle them, although I do all my cleaning with the lights on but I have a 130L tank

I keep the light on as I get quiet lot of dirt mainly from snails chipping on driftwood and the gourami chewing on leaves and plant roots. So I get quiet much Stuff floating around during cleaning and I want to be sure to get as much as I can. But I will try next time to have it off, also maybe I will leave a coconut house in one corner so they can try to hide there.

It is strange because according to my research gourami should not be eating plants, but it is. It pulled out all small ones and ate roots and eats the leafs of bigger ones. I feed It 2x a day tropical flakes alternating with artificial worms and every second day I feed them frozen mosquito larvae and a piece of garlic once a week which they chew on sometimes.

I put just a small amount of filter floss inside my vacuum pipe so that if a fish or shrimp gets up in there, they can't go all the way, I also use a small pump to do this instead of the python system, but will work either way. You can also pinch the hose line if gravel or fish gets up in the tube to reduce the pressure to get them back out with a soft shake.

I just have they classical tubes which you have to such the air out to make it work I thought about some kind of stuffing like the filter fibers or the fish net over it. But most of my 'waste' is too big to be collected through this. It is poops and chopped driftwood which would not go through the fish net (at least the one I have) I will try the filter fiber through I have just recently bought such thing for my new tank but I did not think of using it this way Ill give it a try. Maybe it will work better than fish net material.

I've also cut a piece of netting and rubberbanded over the opening. Being cheap, I just used the discarded bag from my Halos and cut a piece to fit over the end of the tube hehe.

I tried to cut a cheep fish net for this purpose, but it was too thick for collecting the dirt. I must try this again with some different material

 

Yeah, the bag from oranges/halos/cuties isn't as fine as that.

Oh, I do NOT suck on the tube of my gravel vac .. ick. I so don't want to get water in my mouth! I did a quick search for a video and here's basically how I do it, except I don't bother lifting it completely out of the tank and I don't go straight up. I just tilt it up at an angle and when the water is about halfway or so, then tilt it back down below the surface. Play with it until you get it the way you like.

 

Yeah, the bag from oranges/halos/cuties isn't as fine as that.

Oh, I do NOT suck on the tube of my gravel vac .. ick. I so don't want to get water in my mouth! I did a quick search for a video and here's basically how I do it, except I don't bother lifting it completely out of the tank and I don't go straight up. I just tilt it up at an angle and when the water is about halfway or so, then tilt it back down below the surface. Play with it until you get it the way you like.

OMG However basic this is, I never thought about it My remembered my parents would suck the water through the tube when cleaning their tank when I was little so I thought that's how everyone does it XD But I must say not a single time did I get any water in my mouth yet! Lucky me Thank you for this advice, it it very helpful

 

I have just most likely found out what was causing the water discoloration. I do clean my filter once in 3 weeks because it is second hand external one and is super hard to open and put back together. I only clean the sponge and the ceramic rings in vacuumed tank water just to get rid of big particles.

But the ceramic rings and the sponge were filled with goo which looked like old bits of torn up leafs. ^^ So mystery solved and now I know what to look up for.