To be honest, I cannot really think of one good reason for anyone to remove his/her fish during routine maintenance/water changes. In some ways, it may actually be good for you to be kicking up all of those 'floaties' since you can hopefully remove some of them as the water is being removed; and your filter would hopefully pick some up as well.
As requested, I will skip revisiting the overstocking discussion, but will jump all over the 'floaties' subject by pointing out that you really shouldn't be having that much of a problem with them. The reason I say that is because, during water changes, you should also be vacuuming your gravel to remove detritus (aka floaties). You should also be doing your best to ensure that you are not adding to the detritus factor (I personally like "floaty factor", but does not address the seriousness of this topic all that much) by not over feeding and/or adding any other types of organic material since this will only help to reduce water quality more rapidly and add to your tank being overstocked (sorry, but it is true).
IME, even small fish are strong enough to swim against most normal siphon vacuums - just like they can avoid the 'pull' of a filter intake - and so sucking them up is not normally an issue. If you are still unsure or leery about your fishes' safety, you can pack the end of your gravel vac with filter floss to ensure that even if a fish is caught up in the water current, it will stay in the tank. This is what I have been doing as of late because I have quite a few fry in one of my tanks.
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Forgive the simplicity of this topic, for I am still new to fish-keeping...
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For the record, please understand that most, if not all of the forum's members are more than happy to help out where he/she can and with those who are new to the hobby, or are already very familiar with aquariums and fish. That being said, please don't feel as though anyone is 'attacking' you for asking what might otherwise be called a 'stupid question'. Too add to that, please understand that most all of us realize that overstocking is an extremely common mistake and while a lot of us will seem to 'harp' on you for this, we only do so because it is a mistake which can have long lasting and far reaching consequences - both for your success, and for your fishes' health.
Of course, the real world is not always as nice as I might be making this forum seem within these comments, and I realize that some people may become a bit 'overly passionate' about one subject or another, but please feel absolutely free to contact a moderator if you feel as though you are being berated or mistreated due to a question or current issue you are faced with.
Just wanted to set the record straight, and my thoughts here can and do apply to anyone on the forum. I will get off my soapbox now...
