Cats and Fish...

Eric Ellis · 12-08-2004, 10:51 PM

I am a new member to this forum and to the reef aquairum hobby. I am currently trying to educate myself on creating and maintaining a reef tank (I do not currently have one).

I have a concern about my cats. I have two young cats (1 1/2 years old). They still like to play and run around. Are there horror stories out there about cats terrifying fish tanks?

Thanks...

E

Gaidin · 12-08-2004, 11:07 PM

i have two cats... I would often find one sitting on the glass top of my 25 gal tall tank with a lion and a tomato clown in it... she would just sit there staring down into the tank watching the fish move around... never seemed to bother the fish or the cat... and she never seemed to try and get to the fish at all even tho only half the tank was covered...she still had access to the water and such but she never tried to get the fish out.. just funny seeing her sitting on top of the tank watching... there was also another time that my other cat was sitting on top of the sump watching a tang i had in there (he was separated from the others in the display tank since they were harassing him) well she accidentally fell into the sump getting her hind legs wet and she has never sat on top of the sump since...

-J.R.

1979camaro · 12-08-2004, 11:34 PM

i too have a cat...she has never been a problem...my reef is open toped and she doesn't go near it. She likes lying on the canopy of the 40 when the lights are on because it is warm...and she used to climb onto my 29 but a few shots with a squirt bottle broke that habit fairly well...i wouldn't be worried about that cat

Big Dave · 12-09-2004, 01:08 AM

No worries on the cat thing! My cat liked laying on the canopy as well, and he has long white hair too. Never saw any floating around in the tank, but I don't think it would cause a problem anyways. There was someone on the main board talking about dog hair getting in the tank - he had a shrimp or crab that would actually EAT the hair. Glad I'm not a shrimp!!

HTH
-Big Dave

Krux · 12-09-2004, 02:26 AM

welcome to the board!

please take a moment to read the new members section if you haven't already.

the only thing you might want to be concerned about is possible scratching. if the cats like to jump and paw at stuff, and they are not declawed, you might eventually run into a problem of scratches in the tank unless you go with glass.

while i personally dont have a cat to say wether this is truly an issue or not, i do hypothesize that the first time the cat scratched your beautiful tank, one of them is going to get some serious ownership rethinking

1979camaro · 12-09-2004, 09:17 AM

actually, they aren't too likely to scratch glass...cats scratch to remove the outer "husk" of their claw so they need something they can dig into (hence the popularity of living room furniture)

Krux · 12-09-2004, 10:31 AM

i am thinking the accidental scramble on and off of the tank, not intentional scratching of it... my old roommates cat used to scramble to get on top of the fridge, which is what i was invisioning

Nate C · 12-09-2004, 10:32 AM

I have a 4mo Kitten - got him and the tank around the same time, and he's intrigued by it but once he figured out he can't actually reach the critters inside he got bored.

He *is* very fascinated with anything that has water in it - toilets, sinks, showers, etc... he walked the edge of my waste bucket one time while I was doing a water change and fell in (dang that was hysterical....) so I wouldn't run a tank in my house open top... personal preference.

Every cat is gonna be a little bit different. -

biomekanic · 12-09-2004, 11:30 AM

Fish O' Vision is our oldest cats (12 years old) favorite show.

The two younger ones had to be chased off the lid, but after a few squirts, they don't go up there.
I did have big, cat related incident. When I ordered my Remora from Marine Depot, they sent me the model that has the drain instead of the regular one (they upgraded for free since the normal one was out of stock). I had it draining into an empty soda bottle. At around 2AM, Kachiko (our Snowshoe siamese) was batting the bottle around, and managed to setup a drip. A drip into the powerstrip. At 2:10AM, 2/14/2002 we had Chinese New Year in our living room as the strip shorted out and caught on fire. To make this already to long story short, keep your power supply well away from the tank, and make sure they can't knock anything around to cause a drip.

impur · 12-09-2004, 11:34 AM

I have a 1yr old cat and a 6yr old cat. My 10 gal nano with a clown and watchman goby is open top and about 2-3 feet off the ground. It is easily accessable for them. The only time they go around it is when i'm staring at the tank, and they only want attention. The kitten used to paw at the glass as a fish would swim by, but that got boring quick. I wouldn't worry about the cats.

Krux · 12-09-2004, 06:00 PM

dogs are better eating, i would opt for one of those over a cat in case times get lean in the future

worst pet ever was lynn's rabbit, that thing gnawed on everything, and i was sure that one day i would wake up with lights not working, and a bbq rabbit sitting under the tank....

friends with cats tend to cover the tops, probably more to keep the cats from slipping in than to keep them from fishing, but as mentioned above, all cats are going to be different. very few like to swim though, so you are safe in knowing they will not be going clamming in the tank while you are at work

WavesSam · 12-09-2004, 06:22 PM

I have a flame point siamese cat who loves my tank. He stares at it for hours, bobbing his head as the fish swim by. He's waiting for the chance, im sure. Luckily its physically impossible to get in. If he ever got close, he'd live outside. **** CAT

impur · 12-10-2004, 11:57 AM

Mmmmmmmmm bbq rabbit