Removing Fish During Rescape

[eduller]

So I need to do a complete rescape of my tank. I don't have the time to do it piecemeal. My ludwigia and wisteria have just taken over and are not allowing the swords to get enough light. Even with regular trimming, so I'm going to move them to opposite sides of the tank. This is going to require some major work. I didn't want to take all the fish out, but I think I will have to for their own safety. The cories and gouramis are too curious for their own good. They all almost die every time I trim the plants.
 
So I was thinking of getting the largest rubbermaid tote I can find and temporarily homing the fish in there with a heater and filter hooked up. How long do you think I can leave them in the tote? I won't be able to hook up the canister filter that's on their main tank because I feel like it would be WAY too much current in there. I'd pull a filter from each of my betta's tanks (20 gallon filters each) because I know the bettas will be fine without the filters for a few hours. Think they would be okay for 2-3 hours? The tank is 55 gallons and well stocked, though not overstocked. Small, peaceful fish. The tote would be maybe 35 gallons.

 

[fluttermoth]

They would be fine for that length of time, yes. Make sure your container is covered, so they can't jump out! And don't feed them for a couple of days before hand, to keep waste to a minimum.  I don't think you'd need to worry about filtration, if it's only going to be a few hours

 
Don't forget to post some before and after pics!

 

[Brandon1]

I really do think that you would be more than OK with just the two to three hours. I do like the suggestion from fluttermoth as well – the waste can become a problem if are not careful about not feeding them (I learned this the hard, gross way). Make sure to post pics when you have it all complete!

 

[TwoTankAmin]

I used to have to pull up all of the stems in my high tech planted tank, cut them in half and then replant them. I had to do this every 6-8 weeks. I never removed the fish. I used to have to remove out of control HM every 2-3 months and replant about 5-10% of it to restart it. And i never removed a single fish.
 
If you want to pull the fish, be my guest, but I would not be surprised if you pull up a lot of plants trying to catch them all. When I have to pull things from a tank as described I have always done two things- put a heat in the Rubbermaid and put an airstone in as well to move the water and keep O levels up. I always have to strip down pleco breeding tanks to catch fry. I learned early on fry hide in things and if I did not pull everything to a heated oxygenated Rubbermaid, dead fry were found in the bottom of containers.
 
The reason for adding heat and air is simple, if you get delayed for any reason, the fish will be safe for a while.

 

[eduller]

So far I have just been cutting the stem plants halfway down and planting the tops in other tanks, but I'm completely out of room for plants in all 6 tanks now. I was dead set on doing this with the fish in the tank originally, but it's going to be really extensive and I feel like it would stress the fish out more to have my giant arms in their territory for 2 hours.
 
Maybe I'll set up the tote with the spare heater and airstone before I start and see how much I can do without removing the fish. I was planning on just setting up two 5 gallon buckets full of water next to me and dropping the plants in as I remove them. That way I can take my time pulling off the pond snails, trimming, and removing any dead leaves without worrying about the plants drying out. Also if I manage to get any of the ramshorn or nerite snails (the ones I want to keep - I feed the ponds to the dwarf puffer) or any of the shrimp attached to the plants, they won't die either. 
 
The tough thing is it's a corner tank so it's super deep and awkward to get in there. I literally have to shove my whole arm up to my armpit to reach the substrate. And visibility is tough when I'm on a stepstool leaning over trying not to put any weight on the tank edge. It would be just my luck to tip over or break the whole thing. And then the water distorts my view and I can't watch from the front of the tank while I'm planting, so I wouldn't be able to tell if any of the fish were in the way. I think my cories are pretty dumb and/or just way too curious for their own good. I have to actually push them out of the way sometimes when I'm trying to do anything.

 

[eduller]

So I went out and bought a 35 gallon container, got it all set up with treated water and a heater and airstone. I pulled all the plants out with the fish still in the tank while draining it to about the 40% point. There was a bunch of debris and dead leaf bits, but it wasn't as much mess as I had thought would happen from pulling the plants. Then I proceeded to try to catch the fish. Uh...yeah I caught the gouramis right away, but I literally spent half an hour and couldn't catch any of the other fish. So I decided to just finish with the fish in the tank, haha!!
 
Of course, I'm an idiot and didn't take any pictures immediately before I started, but I have a video from a couple of weeks ago.
 
By the way, here's the starting point:

 
Video - this was from 3-4 weeks ago, so imagine the plants all having grown at least another 6 inches to the point where they were all just a tangled mess. There was only maybe 6 square inches of surface space open, so I'd have to hold them out of the way at feeding time. I measured the longest stalk of ludwigia I pulled out, and it was 37 inches long!!!
 
http/i977.photobucket.com/albums/ae251/eduller/20140325_204058_zps14ef1407.jpg
 
Aaand now, after rescape! It's still pretty bubbly, but I think it turned out great! I will let the stem plants grow back up to the surface and a little beyond, but I'm going to really keep on top of trimming now so that I don't have to do a major overhaul again. I moved the swords to one side mostly so they wouldn't be in the shadows. I also added some  terracotta pot caves and polished rocks and petrified wood (all soaked, scrubbed) that I got from a recent trip to the Grand Canyon. It's not perfect, but I only had about 2 hours, and it looks better! I think my eye gets a little more developed every time I do this. The fish still have a lot of cover. I wanted it to look partially manicured but still a little wild, and I wanted to see more of the 3D background I made. You couldn't really see any of the background or any of the driftwood before.