For those with tanks: Do your cats use them as "fishy tv"?

annericebowl

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It could be that pleco tearing things up. Not too sure though.

The grass-like plant from PetSmart isn't an aquatic plant--if it's the "Mondo Grass" that I am thinking of. It's the same stuff used to border flower beds in landscaping. It'll last about 3 weeks in your tank and them die. I found this out the hard way.

Was the tougher leaved plant Anubias?
 

clairebear

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I have a 45 gallon tank in my living room. Bean will sit next to it, and when the fish move fast he'll bat at the side of the tank!
 

tobi

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Hehehe my cat Memphis used to love to sit on top of my tanks and hang his arms down the sides, like he was hugging the tank. Then one day I accidentally left the lid off the tank after feeding time... He went to jump up and ended up half in with the fishies
Now he never goes near the tank!

I have a 25g with some seahorses and cardinalfish and a 75g with no fish yet but it'll soon be a butterflyfish tank. Doesn't look like anyone else here has saltwater... I used to be a freshwater junkie but I just needed more!
 
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artgecko

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Hmmm My money is on the pleco... If you aren't already feeding him, I'd suggust giving him so algae/spirulina waffers at night (maybe even include a general bottom dweller food like shrimp pellets, etc. every once in a while). Spring for the good veggie waffers as the cheap ones, most plecos won't touch. I like hikari or Omega one. You can also feed him zucchini via rubberbanding it to something, weighting it down, or, my fav. the "veggie clip". Although feeding that sort of thing can be messy, so when I do it, I feed them that a day or so before I do a waterchange.

As to the plants, ditto on the grass stuff. Anubias should stave off the pleco, and I'm surprised the java fern did not.... What I would do, is start feeding the pleco, after about 3 weeks or so of getting regular meals, then try to introduce an anubias or java fern. If all goes well, try some watersprite or wisteria...both of those are fairly fast growing and shouldn't have a problem dealing with the low light. If he's still minding his manners with those plants, you can try some crypts (which are slower growing and "softer" so easier for fish to eat).

Do you still have the box that the fertalizer tabs came in? Check the ingredients and make sure that they do not have any nitrates in them...Some ferts do, and that can cause algae problems.

Because you are only using natural light, I'd stick with low light plants for now.

Oh, I had some praecox once and they are georgous! They were my all-time favorite fish. I hate that I lost them to an internal parasite infection. On a side note, don't ever buy guppies at a chain store, I got some, put them in a Q-tank for 1 month, they looked fine, but 3 months later, showed signs of internal worms, which, by that time, had killed off my rainbows.
Whenever I get around to upgrading my tanks and moving folks around, I will definately be getting a large school of rainbows for my 46gl. Either the praecox or the turquoise dwarf rainbows.

Art
 

aussie_dog

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I don't have fish yet, but I did get a 60 gal last week and it's in the process of cycling. I know my girls are going to use it as Kitty TV, though it's right in Jake's (my dog) path, which is right next to his sleeping area, so I may have to help them out every now and then and crate him when he's getting riled up (he'll stare...very intently...and when a kitty darts forward and slaps the tank's glass, he'll jump or twitch then squeal and race in a circle, which startles said cat)

The night I got the tank and filled it with water, Buffy decided to go swimming. The tank has two hoods, and only one was put up (I think the other one was off because I was fiddling with the placement of the heater and thermometre). Buffy hopped up on the minifridge that's almost next to it, and she leapt up when we weren't expecting it (her method of checking new things is to personally explore it, which, in this case, means jumping on it and sniffing it all over). She got her back feet onto the rim of the tank, and her front feet were SUPPOSED to land on solid footing as well, but they didn't. She basically keeled over and plunged headfirst into the water (okay, it happened too fast, but I guess she kept her head up and basically went CHEST-first into the water, lol). She was rescued right away and then she nursed her pride while the rest of us LAUGHED and LAUGHED and LAUGHED some more (though there was some worry about what injesting the ammonia might do to her...). Seriously, though, it's a frightful thought of her doing it again WITHOUT anyone around to help her, as what if she'd gone under and then came up under the one hood that was set up? There'd be a little bit of air, but man, the fear she'd be going through... *shudder*
 
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artgecko

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Aussie- I *might* be wrong, but I don't think your cat will be jumping on top of the tank again any time soon... With an experience like that, she should be pretty wary for a while. Also, good for you on doing a "fishless" cycle. I did that when setting up my shellie tank and it worked very well. I didn't have to worry about slowly adding the fish, but could add everyone at the same time. Of course, waiting for it to cycle was vary hard...staring at an empty tank. What will you be stocking the tank with?

Art
 

aussie_dog

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Well, for sure, I want a Betta. 60gal for one Betta is overdoing it (or so I've been told again and again and again... and again... lol). I accidently killed my sister's friend's Betta (my sister was fishsitting and I hated seeing Captain Saturday in his teeny little container with dirty water, so I tried to change it and move him to a big jar, not knowing about water conditioner... oops... Well, I read about Bettas first and heard about water conditioners, but was HOPING we didn't have chlorine in our water, which sounds rediculous now...). But, if the Betta behaves, I want to add some Neon Tetras and maybe Zebra Danios (I've heard mixed reviews on these ones coexisting with Bettas, though), and possibly some Corys. And heck, I'm entertaining the possibility of getting one of those African Dwarf Frogs, lol. BUT, if the Betta decides to be one of those antisocial Bettas, I'll get another tank, 10-20 gallons, and move him there and stock up the 60gal with the rest (I don't want to return any fishies just because the Betta doesn't like them. I can't imagine the stress would be good for them, being moved back and forth)

Hey, I do have a question though: so far I only have the tank, heater, and filter, and am waiting for the cycling to be nearly over before getting substrate (sand! weeeee!) and plants (am bidding on silk ones in bulk on ebay, lol) and, of course, cute little decor like castles and broken vases and aerating ornaments (there's this one at Petsmart I'm dying to have of a skeleton popping out of his coffin/grave). But anyhoo, my question is on oxygen. I didn't see much on it before, but NATURALLY, now is when I'm reading that heat + water = depleted oxygen (which slows down the cycling process). So now I wonder, is an airstone necessary? I was planning on getting an air pump at some point (for the air-bubblin' skeleton, lol), but now I figure I must need an air stone. I did read that for the little ornaments, you don't need the higher powered air pumps, but I guess for air stones, you DO need higher powered? I don't want to make a mistake and have something bigger than what I need, something I'll soon not need anymore (it'd scare our vain little Betta friend, lol).
 
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artgecko

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Aeration- Usually, if you have enough filtration (with power/hang on the tank filters) you will be ok with aeration... I usually like to reccomend 10gph (gallons per hour) per gallon of tank volume...i.e. on my 10gl tank I use a single 100gph filter (penguin mini). On my 20gl I use 2, 100gph filters, etc. By splitting up the filtration into 2 filters (for a 60gl like yours, I'd use 2, 300gph filters) you safeguard youself against a filter failure and you ensure that all areas of the tank get water movement.

If you have some areas that still aren't getting enough water movement (dead spots), I'd suggust placing your airstones/ornaments there. i.e. if you have a filter on the right hand side of the tank and nothing on the left, place the airstone on the left.

Usually air pumps will give you a "tank size" rating or a rating via how deep the tank is...ie. "this pump is suitable up to 24" tank height". I'd suggust going with a better air pump rather than going with a cheaper/smaller model (some air pumps can run multiple units at the same time). Also, get a safety or check valve for all of your air lines/ornaments/stones.. It basically looks like an airstone w/ outlets on both ends... You place it midway between the pump and airstone/ornament. It prevents the water from going back down the line into the pump in the event of a power failure.

Stocking: I have kept bettas (both male and female) in my community tanks and have run into few problems, with a few exceptions... I wouldn't suggust keeping a betta with any other anabantoid (i.e. gourami, paradise fish, etc.) or any other primarilly surface-dwelling fish...like hatchets that tend to stay near the top where the betta's main "territory" is. I would also avoid any similarly long-finned fish that the betta might mistake for a rival (i.e. long-finned danios, rasboras, etc.) Lastly, avoid any very agressive or highly active fish that might "snack" on the betta's fins... i.e. medium-sized cichlids like the firemouth, zebra danios (they are hyper and look for things to do, like nip the betta) or tiger barbs (who don't work well with MOST other fish).

That said, for a 60gl with a betta, I would reccommend the following options for you to look into:
1. A group of bottom-dwellers... i.e. cories (panda, melini, peppered, aneus, etc.) loaches (3 yo-yos, 3-4 dojos, or 6-8 kuhliis).
2. Schoolers- Instead of the very hyper danios or ultra sensitive (and usually poorly due to inbreeding) neons, I'd suggest:
- cherry barbs (a group of ~5 males and 6 females will give you quite a show with their bright colors. They are very peaceful and don't "school" a lot).
- Serpae tetras (if kept in a large group i.e. 8+ they keep to themselves, don't school a lot, but do display a lot)
- White cloud mountain minnows- one of my all-time favorites... similar size to neons, but prefer cooler temps (i.e. 76-74f). Red fins, and the males get a "bronzy" color to them.... They school, can be fast movers, but are very peaceful and display (by flicking their fins) a lot. A group of 12+ would make an awesome display
- praecox (neon blue dwarf rainbows)- GREAT fish! If you can find them, neon blue in color, bright red fins on the males w/ yellow fins on females. Peaceful, active, display and "flash" when you have a mixed sex group. Highly reccomend.
- Glowlight tetras are also cool fish. They look similar to neons in that they have a neon stripe down their sides, but the strip is orangy-red and they have orange eyes. Hardier than neons and a tiny bit bigger. They aren't as fast moving, but are nice fish.
- lemon tetras and black neon tetras I have also heard good things about, but haven't kept personally.
You can mix a couple of the above... i.e. a group of slower-moving cherry barbs and some white clouds, etc. It's just important that schoolers have a large-enough group of their own... At LEAST 6, preferably 8-9+ of each species.

3. "show" fish- although the betta will be a "show" fish due to his/her personality, if you want a showy fish for the bottom of the tank, either a bolivian ram or krib...both dwarf cichlids might work well.

4. Algae crew- Wait on this till you have algae...lots of algae, then I'd either go with a single bristlenose or ~4-6 otocinclus catfish (the smallest pleco and live-plant friendly.

HTH,
Art
 

kittiesx2

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I'm a little late but thought I'd join in anyway

We don't have a fishtank but we do have a tortoise that Tucker never leaves alone. He even sleeps on top of the enclosure.
 

xlaydeextaniax

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i have an 8ft (240 US gal) tank! & to tell you the truth here, my cat's don't actually bother with it at all, there has been the odd occasion where they have had a sneak peak LOL! they however are more interested in ripping the wallpaper off my walls
 

sharky

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I second the preacox and white clouds
.... I keep both and love them... the preacox in store often appear silver and not blue
 
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