after the fry become free swimming can i take them out to clean the tank?

Answer 1

You can still clean a tank with fry swimming around, just make sure there are hiding places. Once you start moving water they'll hide. Just use a siphon and clean out the tank, after you use an algae scraper for the inside. Unless you're doing a 100% water change while you try to clean it, I would leave the fry in there. Just make sure if you put the fry in another tank the water is conditioned. Otherwise, use water from your tank you've got right now, and put that water in the new tank that your fry will be swimming in, just so they won't go into shock because the temperature would be different and it's so clean.

Answer 2

What do you mean by "clean the tank"? If you mean simply wiping down the glass, changing the filter media and doing a partial water change, then no, you don't need to take out the fry. Just be careful not to suck them up as you siphon out water for the water change.

If, by cleaning the tank, you mean taking out all of the water, breaking it down, washing the gravel, cleaning the decorations, scrubbing out the filters etc, then DON"T DO IT!!!!! That is rarely, if ever, needed and destroys the biological filiter established in the tank to take out ammonia and nitrates. Such a "cleaning" is a recipe for a massive fish kill, or at least a major fish stressor.

Trust me on this. This is over 40 years as an aquarium hobbiest with six tanks (marine and freshwater) and a degree in ecology currently running talking here. All one needs to do is, once a month or so, siphon out about 20% of the water, change the chemical filtration media, and replace the water with fresh dechlorinated water. Personally, I go through this exercise on my tanks about every two weeks, but I am obsessed. It takes only a few minutes for a small tank and is, in the end, a LOT less work then a major cleaning.

So, while your question asked about taking out the fry, the real question is what are you planning as far as a "cleaning" goes.

Answer 3

Like the previous answer said, if you feel like you need to take them out to clean the tank be sure that you are 1) using the same water, and 2) that it is the same temperature.

I have some fry and had a bad experience while cleaning out my tank... 2 went into my siphon while I was cleaning my gravel. The problem was that my siphon connected directly to my sink. I'm sure you can guess what happened to them. So now when I deep clean I will remove the fry and they seem to do just fine.

Answer 4

Here is a site that explains raising the fry of bettas in detail
http://www.bettysplendens.com/articles/catview.imp?catid=856


Hope that helps
Good luck


EB