I have a 100 gallon with about 20 smaller fish and a huge apple snail, I syphon the gravel every other week. My 'gravel' is a thin layer of smooth stone and covers only 2/3 of the tank. No do not remove the fish, just keep an eye on them so you don't syphon them! Mine usually give the hose a pretty wide berth but I have a couple that are pretty nosey about things and they follow it around.

Thanks for the quick reply. So I guess with my ratio of fish per gallons of water I should clean my gravel every week. I haven't been removing my fish so I'm glad to hear that is okay.

If you buy a siphon hose for gravel it will have a large lower piece that makes it possible to siphon the muck from the gravel without the gravel ending up in the bucket. Only the smallest baby fish can be sucked up by one of these types of hoses because of the slower water flow within the tube.

2 plecos in a 29 gallon tank is a no no
its over stocked
they have smaller clown plecos and other species that dont grow past 4", that would be a better option for a 29 gallon, and otto's they do a good job of cleaning up algae, but they are really tiny so im not sure what other kinds of fish you have in the tank
since your tank is over crowded id do biweekly changes of 20-30 percent
the python syphon is the best one, it hooks up to your sink faucet and you can clean a 29 gallon tank in less than 5 minutes

Two common plecos in a tank that small is definately not a good idea, they grow huge, besides, they produce incredible ammounts of poop and soil the gravel pretty fast.

i agree they are too big for my tank but since they are there i will just have to live with them or get a larger tank which i really don't have room for.

maybe you can trade them in for something at your local petstore

thanks everyone for the responses. what is a good place to shop on-line for aquarium supplies like python syphons, etc?

Big Als, That Fish Place or Drs. Foster and Smith - all will carry this.

Like others who've mentioned, your two common plecos will get huge. I have two in a 55 gallon, and it's really too small for both (along with 3 cichlids in this tank, a flying fox and a chinese algae cleaner) My sister-in-law is taking the albino pleco from me, which is now nearly 10 inches in length. The common pleco is younger, and only about 7 inches in length. They grow fast - the albino I've had only for 5 years, the common for about 4. I got them when they were about 2 inches long.

Thanks Skygee. The larger pleco (Clarence) is one of the orignal fish I got 9 yrs ago when I got the aquarium for Christmas. He is 13 or 14 inches long. The smaller (C. Junior) is 10". He is an adoptee from a neice who had to shut her aquarium down. I am really attached to them so I guess a larger tank is my only option. Thanks again.