Cats & Aquariums

[Sprzout]

Hi all!

Getting ready to dive in to a reef tank, and after going to my LFS, I noticed that a lot of the tanks there were uncovered.

That's not going to work in my house; I have 2 cats (they're the wife's) and I would rather not have them looking at my $100 fish purchase and going, "Oooh! Look! Sushi!"

I'm assuming I can get some sort of tank screen or lid for most of these tanks to keep them out, but that brings another question up that I thought of - my cats like to jump and climb. Are there methods to keep a tank from getting knocked over/off of a stand if 20 lbs of cat decides to try and scale the aquarium? I'm thinking something like earthquake straps, etc. that seems to be so common for larger TV stands, bookcases, etc. - is there anything out there like that? I don't want to come out some morning to find 30-40 gallons of water from my nano tank all over the floor, fish gone, sand, coral, rock, and a shattered tank.

Anyone else out there with this situation, and if so, how did you get around it?

 

[DeniseAndy]

Lots of people with cats and tanks. Someone should speak up. All I have is kids and dogs. Plus, my tank is 210g and that is not going to be easy to knock over or get into. It is on a 3.5'stand.

Lots of options for covers, so no worries on that either. A stand that is stable to hold 40g of water should be too stable for a cat to knock over. Getting into the top is different.

 

[Sprzout]

Lots of people with cats and tanks. Someone should speak up. All I have is kids and dogs. Plus, my tank is 210g and that is not going to be easy to knock over or get into. It is on a 3.5'stand.

Lots of options for covers, so no worries on that either. A stand that is stable to hold 40g of water should be too stable for a cat to knock over. Getting into the top is different.

I would hope so. I just think about top heavy weight and 20 lbs of cat jumping into the side of the tank and rebounding off, resulting in, "TIIIIIIIMMMMMMBER!" LOL He did it once before with a bookcase that, unfortunately, was not pushed up against the wall properly. Running around the living room, he jumped, angled off of it, and it swayed and brought over 100 lbs in books down into the middle of the living room, destroying our thrift store coffee table. Ever since then, I've strapped the bookcases to the walls. But, I think about the tanks and wonder if that's possible, or if it's something I seriously need to worry about?

 

[Brew12]

I would hope so. I just think about top heavy weight and 20 lbs of cat jumping into the side of the tank and rebounding off, resulting in, "TIIIIIIIMMMMMMBER!" LOL He did it once before with a bookcase that, unfortunately, was not pushed up against the wall properly. Running around the living room, he jumped, angled off of it, and it swayed and brought over 100 lbs in books down into the middle of the living room, destroying our thrift store coffee table. Ever since then, I've strapped the bookcases to the walls. But, I think about the tanks and wonder if that's possible, or if it's something I seriously need to worry about?

With a well built stand, the center of mass will be lower than with a bookshelf and will probably have a bigger footprint making it much more stable.. A 20 pound cat won't knock it over.

 

[djd3mon]

I have 2 cats. For some reason they pretty much pay no attention to the tanks. The most the do is look for a few seconds if a fish swims by. Thats it.

I was so afraid i would come home 1 day and find one of my cats floating in my tank.

Im not saying it cant happen but so far for me it does not look like they care for the tank.

 

[DracoKat]

My cats have zero interest in my tank. At first they were curious, but after a day or so, they don't even look at it anymore.

 

[sinekal]

Same here, I think cats could scale equipment in my fish room and go swimming, but they express no interest.

 

[jd371]

My cat could care less about the tank or it's inhabitants. I'd worry more of the fish jumping out than the cats.

 

[erinmegan85]

I have three cats. Two are fat and couldn't jump on top of any of my tanks even if they wanted too, and one is skinny and doesn't even pay attention. Max is the only one who is remotely interested in any of the fish tanks. He just discovered the other day that there were actually things swimming/crawling around in our newest tank. He was mesmerized for a couple hours:

 

[mpjmeyer]

Our cat has an ice cold water fountain by his food dish, yet he insists on drinking the water from our freshwater tank when he thinks nobody is looking. Doesn't bother the fish tho. The size of the stand doesn't matter either, our cat gets atop of the cabinets in the kitchen in 1 jump. Also literally as I was typing this message, my son just yelled, " Dad!! come get Dre, he's drinking from the fish tank again"

 

[Joey waid]

We have a cat tree near one of our tanks and for the most part they could care less. The would rather chase their tails.

 

[Millhugh718]

I wouldnt want to give any cat any chance, do canopy

 

[Pugfishluv3]

My cats had more interest in the tank when it had a lid. Cat liked to lay on the glass top and cracked splash busted the glass and fell in its was mostly funny tho :mad:

 

[Sprzout]

Thanks all. Maybe I'm being a little nervous about my cats and potential sea critters - I'll probably be fine, but my experience with cats is that they eat fish.

Several years ago, when I was going through the process of getting married, my mom came up with the great idea that she'd make centerpieces for the tables. The centerpieces would consist of some sort of spider plant, which would then have its roots go into a large vase with a betta swimming around under the plant roots. It seemed nice, and apparently my mom had done research on which plants would work with the bettas, etc.

She went to the local Petco, bought 8 fish, and set them on the counter, then went out into the backyard to separate the plants and prep them for the vases. When she came back in, 15 minutes later, she saw 4 of the containers were knocked over, and one of the fish was on the floor. She was able to save it, but thought that the fish were trying to attack each other through their containers and knocked them over. (I know, it seems really unrealistic; if that was what had happened, where were the other 3 fish? My mom wasn't putting it all together yet).

She realized that she needed 3 more fish, since the others were missing, and went back to Petco to get 3 more.

When she came home, that's when she discovered my grandmother's Maine Coon cat standing on the counter, knocking the lid off of one of the last containers, paw in the water. Only one of the original 8 bettas were left, and he'd eaten the rest.

Sounds like I won't have to worry about this with a good canopy and stand, though.

 

[mkj]

Answer, depends on the cat. Some ignore some wont just like humans.

 

[Tori]

My girl has two cats so I had the same concerns when I got my tank. I made sure it came with a cover when I made the purchase. In the end the cats ended up ignoring both my tanks.
Liko others on here have said I wouldn't worry about the cats knocking the tank over either as long as it has a decent stand. You're talking about 20 lbs. versus 300 or 400 lbs. I would only worry about them falling in if they were on top for some reason.

 

[Tahoe61]

Unfortunately for me my cat felt the need to jump into my tank not once but twice. The first time she broke up a large acropora colony. After the second time she still thought about it.

If your lights are not suspended or you do not have a lid for the tank to prevent a fixture from falling in you are taking a risk. I have seen threads where the fixture was in the tank after the cat decided to jump on the fixture.

Some cats like mine have no aversion to water, in fact I can not keep her out of the bath tub.

 

[kattz]

We have 5 cats, and other than watching the fish from the sofa occasionally, they have no interest in it. Not even the kittens!

Kev