2 questions: Aquariums and Ear Licking

Hi! We have two not quite six month old kittens, Pippin and Eowyn. They're doing great, healthy, happy, affectionate and full of personality. But I do have a couple questions.

1. How do I keep them away from the aquariums? For now we're just discouraging the behaviour when we catch it. During the day it's not a problem because they stay in the bedroom when we're not home. But we'd like to start giving them the run of the house after the holidays. I'm thinking of putting double stick tape on the hoods. Any other suggestions?

2. Both kittens bathe each other. The little male, Pippin, seems obsessed with his sister's ears. Eowyn seems to enjoy it for awhile but wanders away when she gets tired of it. I object to the to the behaviour for a couple reasons. A. The fur around Eowyn's ears is constantly soaked and I worry about the moisture in her ears. B. It's a little gross. He snuffles in her ears, slurping and grunting. I should just get over it, but sometimes it drives me bonkers. However, I haven't been shooing him away from doing it since I don't want to discourage bathing.

Thanks for any help! (Even if you just tell me that I'm being silly about the ear licking)

Can't really help you with the ear thing, but I do own aquariums and my cat, haha... right now my 10gal is on a microwave cart type thing that doesnt allow enough room for Oliver to get on it, so that's a help... but before I moved it was on a bookshelf that went the length of the wall, so he had access to it - my suggestion is lid clips to keep them from knocking the lid off and getting in there (such as these used usually for reptile cages - I have them on my hermit crab tank - which Oliver doesnt have access to, but to keep the suckers from escaping!)... try to keep the openings in your hood to a minimum (ie: the places where your air tubing, filtration system, automatic feeder, etc are).... I also have a little door access on my hood for manual feeding which I just tacked down with black electrical tape... before my tank got struck with disease (I'm still distraut over that actually) I had a LARGE goldfish which Oliver would frequently pet through the feeing hole, but he wasnt able to get the hood off, so I wasn't worried... after the goldie died, I think my other fish were too small for the cat to recognize so he kinda left them alone (he still runs to the tank when the feeder goes off though)...

Anyway, they're my few suggestions... I don't know where your tank is placed, but the less access the kitties have to it, the better.... double stick tape would also be a good start though - good luck!

Ear washing is a big deal around here. And, since the darling babies go after used qtips, too, I always thought that it was something about ear wax. From what I've read around here, it's not something that's abnormal, and I doubt there's a way to stop them from washing each others' ears.

As for the aquarium? Get the lid on there tight, and make sure it's in a place where they can't knock it over batting at their little play friends. There's no way to keep them away from the aquariums (well, maybe bitter apple or a citrus spray), think of them as kitty TV. And kittens are like 6 year olds on Saturday morning. There's just no way to keep them apart.

Yeah, ours are fascinated with Qtips too. It's run through our minds that Pippin has some sort of weird ear wax fixation. I'm a little relieved to hear that other peoples cat's do it too.

As far as the aquarium goes, I'm fine with them watching the fish (we call it kitty TV too. ) But right now it's too easy for either of them to stick a paw in near the filter. And the two rams in the breeding tank are just a little too curious / aggressive for comfort. I know that they'd swim up to investigate white paws invading their domain. I'm going to get the aquarium clips mention above (Thanks BuzbyJLC10), and try to net off the open area around the filter.

Thanks for the tips!