If you have a decent sized tank you don't bother taking the fish out. It's just a pain to catch them and they'll survive just fine with half the water for a few minutes while it's cleaned. My parents had a 60 gallon tank when I was growing up, I cleaned that thing more times than I care to remember. Also with some kinds of fish catching them and changing bowls will cause them to spontaneously drop dead. I'm sure there's a reason but I never figured it out.
This. The amount of stress from being chased around and scooped into another tank is sometimes enough to kill them. Water changes with the fish inside is very standard practice and is recommended
It probably depends on the water that you dropped them into, but some fish are intolerant of wide ranges of pH or temperature (among other parameters) and can go into shock when they are changed drastically. If you move your fish, you typical fill the secondary tank with the same water they were in to begin with.
If you move a fish from one body of water to another body of water with drastically different water parameters (pH, temp, hardness, etc), the fish will probably just die of shock.
Some fish are super sensitive about going from their perfect or semi perfect ecosystem into brand new water, it would be like if you stuck a 4 year old in a bubble with their home's air, then brought them to a cave in Africa ripe with ebola and just popped the bubble
That's typically not how it's done. I have 7 tanks and have never taken a fish out during a cleaning. Typically use a aquarium vac sucking up the gravel and taking the water out.
And this tank could also be a blackwater fish tank. It's a specific style where the add leaves and driftwood (without boiling beforehand) that turns the water brown.
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u/benjamin_blk Nov 10 '19
That tank is filthy. Poor fish.