How Do Your Fish Behave

[specks]

When I do my water changes I always give the gravel a going over with a battery opperated vac. My fish show 2 types of behavior during this time. My corys & kuhli loaches follow the vac to catch any morsels of food they may have missed as do the greedy mollies. The platties & swordtails however seem to think its a good time to reproduce. The rest ...... they just carry on as if nothing is happening. Anyone else noticed this?

 

[RedShark]

When i clean out my 30 gallon i always get nipped by the tigerbarbs. I have one male blue ram and he is constantly following the vaccuum looking for food. Everything else in the tank just kind of does their own thing.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

When i do water changes/subtrate cleaning sessions(i do them at the same time) in my tank i just clean one half of the substrate in the tank, do a water change, then do the other half and do another water change and de-clog the filters if they need a clean, during this time my fish are very well behaved and just wait at the side of the tank that isn't in progress.
The neons go quite pale when im doing substrate cleaning sessions but they regain clor almost as soon as i've finished, the black khuli loachs are the most difficult though because i have to move alot of rocks/tank ornements out of the way when im doing substrate cleaning sessions, they go very active during this time and i get paranoid of squishing them under an ornement. The same goes for the amoured shrimp as its very good at hiding and i get worried of squishing it like the khuli loachs, so recently i started taking it out during these cleaning sessions as it has a habit of clinging to rocks and things that i try to take out- i always search the bogwood peices very carefully to make sure its not attached to one when im taking them out.
As for the guppy hex tank, i always use these oppotunitys to search for fry as the guppy tank is heavily planted/has lots of ornements in it and is almost near imposible to to catch fry when everything is in it.

 

[Angry_Platy]

In my 30gal most of the fish cruise around like nothings happening then give me the death stare when they realise I have just taken out 1/2 thier water I don't do gravel vacs on that tank (heavily planted)

In the 75gal cichlid tank I have lots of fish that like to nibble on my arm when I am doing stuff in the tank. Its a weird sensation, not painful but I still hate the feeling

 

[lljdma06]

My bowl bettas are fine when I do water changes. They even cooperate by going into their holding cups and nicely swimming into their nets after they have been aclimated for the once a week 100% change. I also change 50% during the week as well, and they don't really care.

The bettas in my ten gallon are well-behaved as well, and vacumning the substrate is very easy in there.

Now my 15g is a pain in the royal behind! First, it's heavily planted. Second, though most of my fish behave nicely and get out of the way of the vacumn, I have pygmy catfish and bridget rasboras, very tiny, at times annoying little fish. They like to take trips up the syphon tube and play in my waste bucket full of dirty tank water. So a substrate cleaning goes as follows: Suck up water, suck up fish, stop sucking water, try to find fish, find fish, net fish, put him back in the tank...Suck up water, suck up fish, ect...ect. I hate, I mean I HATE CLEANING MY DARN GRAVEL!!!! Sometimes I wonder if it wouldn't be easier to just net the catfish and the bridget rasboras and put them in a holding container, but then I look at my planted tank and cry because there's no way in H E double hockey sticks that I'm going to find all the fish in that. Tongs make my life only a tiny bit easier, but it's all ok, I love my tiny fish. I only wanna fry them when I clean my gravel.

 

[WILDER]

My tetra's go to the other side of the tank when i'm cleaning it, the corys tend to stay out of my way, but the fancy goldfish like to come and get in my way,lol, and the plec just goes to the other side of the tank while i've finished.

 

[Tolak]

My corys & plecs could pretty much care less what I do in the tanks at any time. Smaller angels are pretty much indifferent also. Larger angels tend to hide in a far corner, away from the syphon or vac.

I've noticed some of the silver angels with more wild blood in them will tend to spazz & careen around the tank during any maintainance once they get a little larger. All full size angels tend to freak out if I don't leave a good 6" of water in the tank, so on really stocked tanks I do multiple 50% water changes.

Tolak