diff --git a/distributed/comm/tcp.py b/distributed/comm/tcp.py
index 9bec238f0ed..1c1a8fbb2ae 100644
--- a/distributed/comm/tcp.py
+++ b/distributed/comm/tcp.py
@@ -191,11 +191,11 @@ async def read(self, deserializers=None):
             lengths = struct.unpack("Q" * n_frames, lengths)
 
             frames = [bytearray(each_length) for each_length in lengths]
-            for each_frame in frames:
+            recv_frames = [each_frame for each_frame in frames if len(each_frame) > 0]
+            for each_frame in recv_frames:
                 each_length = len(each_frame)
-                if each_length:
-                    n = await stream.read_into(each_frame)
-                    assert n == each_length, (n, each_length)
+                n = await stream.read_into(each_frame)
+                assert n == each_length, (n, each_length)
         except StreamClosedError as e:
             self.stream = None
             if not shutting_down():
diff --git a/distributed/comm/ucx.py b/distributed/comm/ucx.py
index ac039205f3a..0bf785fb521 100644
--- a/distributed/comm/ucx.py
+++ b/distributed/comm/ucx.py
@@ -147,6 +147,9 @@ async def write(
                 frames = await to_frames(
                     msg, serializers=serializers, on_error=on_error
                 )
+                send_frames = [
+                    each_frame for each_frame in frames if len(each_frame) > 0
+                ]
 
                 # Send meta data
                 await self.ep.send(np.array([len(frames)], dtype=np.uint64))
@@ -159,10 +162,10 @@ async def write(
                 await self.ep.send(
                     np.array([nbytes(f) for f in frames], dtype=np.uint64)
                 )
+
                 # Send frames
-                for frame in frames:
-                    if nbytes(frame) > 0:
-                        await self.ep.send(frame)
+                for frame in send_frames:
+                    await self.ep.send(frame)
                 return sum(map(nbytes, frames))
             except (ucp.exceptions.UCXBaseException):
                 self.abort()
@@ -195,9 +198,11 @@ async def read(self, deserializers=("cuda", "dask", "pickle", "error")):
                     else np.empty(each_size, dtype=np.uint8)
                     for is_cuda, each_size in zip(is_cudas.tolist(), sizes.tolist())
                 ]
-                for each_frame in frames:
-                    if len(each_frame) > 0:
-                        await self.ep.recv(each_frame)
+                recv_frames = [
+                    each_frame for each_frame in frames if len(each_frame) > 0
+                ]
+                for each_frame in recv_frames:
+                    await self.ep.recv(each_frame)
                 msg = await from_frames(
                     frames, deserialize=self.deserialize, deserializers=deserializers
                 )