water changes and fish near spawning

[Oscar_Mania]

It appears my male and female convict have just paired up and I was wondering if it would be safe to do a water change. Would it be better just to leave the tank alone?

[Tim Bo]

Never had Convicts but it is usually best to leave things alone though clean water is a good thing....

[LongTime]

I don't know the size of your tank. Mine are in a 125 and choose about 1/3 of the tank from one end to set up house. I did not vac anywhere near that area but stayed at the other end and siphoned and added my new water. I use a python so I could add the water slower than just poring from a bucket. I have not had any problems.

Once the fry were free swimming I went back to the vac and put a stocking over the opening of the python so I would not suck up any babies. I still kept my hand in the tank because you can get them stuck to the net. The parents attacked me, the tubing, the python vac part and were not happy.

I still have a ton of fry. :)

[Oscar_Mania]

They are in a 10 gallon, so they probably wouldn't be happy about it, now that they have spawned. I don't think these eggs are going to make it as they are turning a whitish colour. So if they haven't hatched in the usual time, I'll do a water change and let them try again.