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

[artgecko]

Hey folks,
I've got a 10gl, 20gl long, and 46gl bow front running right now and it seems that my cats are using them as entertainment several times each day... I haven't seen them on top of a tank except for one time (thank goodness), but they do love to sit next to them (or on furniture next to them) and stare at the fishies... For some reason, my kitten Frasier especially likes the loaches, both kuhlii and dojo (perhaps it's the resemblance to snakes).

So, do your cats like to watch the fishies? Or do they try to do more than "watch"?

I've heard that there is research that proves that watching a fish tank will lower your stress level, etc. I wonder if the same is true for cats.

Art

 

[annericebowl]

My two do. I've also caught both of them trying to jump from the dining room table to the my largest tank while stalking Atyopsis moluccensis shrimp (bamboo shrimp). My kitten, Layla, likes to balance herself on the open cabinet door (my largest tank has a cabinet style stand) while I am doing water changes.

I have 6 tanks setup and running and 3 empty tank right now. What's setup are a 30 gallon long (my largest tank), 10 gallon, 5.5 gallon, 5 gallon, and two 2.5 gallons. The empties are a 10 gallon and 5 gallon MetaFrames that I am reglassing and a 6.6 gallon acrylic tank.

I keep mostly shrimp (I am known as The Crazy Shrimp Lady) and crayfish.

 

[MoochNNoodles]

Mooch loves to watch the "Cat TV" as we call it. She'll just sit and gaze at it, or she jumps up next to it to sit and watch up close. She's good beyond that though. Our algae eater is very big so he fascinates her. Noodles has lost interest since they were kittens, but she used to like it. Noodles prefers to watch the tv instead; even when it's not on.

 

[artgecko]

I thought that the appeal of the fish might apply to more than just my cats.
Frasier also likes to stalk my mouse pointer. What is odd is that his brother, niles, doesn't pay attention to the fish or the mouse pointer.

BTW, I keep mostly planted fw community. My 20gl long is an african shellie tank, the 46 and 10gls are planted community. I have several dry 10gls at the moment and some smaller dry tanks.

Art

 

[sharky]

Kandie used to watch ... Zoey tries to get in and GO fishing for dinner

 

[annericebowl]

art, I am also a planted tank keeper. I've thought about keeping shellies, but we'll see. I've still got the shrimp addiction though. lol I am up to 8 shrimp species and dwarf crayfish.


BTW, I LOVE the names of your cats!!!! I LOVE Frasier (the show)!!

 

[asecretk]

Egore and Button like to watch the most. Both try now and then to snag a fish through the glass

You think they would have learned by now they can not get to them.

We have a large Bala Shark that we call the "Silver Snack". He gets the most attention.

Uno likes to sit on the top because it is warm. She is a very small cat so it is not really a problem. I catch her now and then trying to reach her paw in were the heater is but she really can't get to them.

 

[siggav]

Nikita used to use my tank as Cat TV now she doesn't as much. She's used to them. She sits on top of it (it's a 30 gallon long) quite often though, I think it's because the top is hot from the lights.

There is a small hole in the cover in the back to let the wires through that's just big enough for her paw and I've seen her "fishing" the fish know to stay away from her though fortunately. I was a bit worried about her maybe tracking litter into the tank but it seems to be ok and I've had her and the tank together for a year and a half now.

Having said that she did kill all my fish apart from a few bettas once. I had a DIY yeast based CO2 generator for my plants. Nikita got into the cabinet and tipped it over and the yeast and sugar mix got siphoned into the tank. The yeast went yay! and multiplied and used up all the oxygen and the fish died.

So currently I've got 5 cories which I bought and then 2 bettas. They have plenty of space in that 30g.

 

[artgecko]

Nice to hear from all the planted tank folks!
Siggav- I had a similar experience, but due to a new carpet and carpet pad. Who'd think that the fumes from a carpet pad would knock out a whole tank of fish.. Sigh.

I haven't been brave enough to go co2 yet...at present I use flourish excel in some of my tanks. One of my favorite setups though, was a low light 10gl with anubias, crypts, java fern, and red temple... Great looking and looooow maintenence.

For shellies, I keep neolamprologus multifasciatus (multies) they are a great little colony shellie and have been very hardy for me. They're currently doing well on straight tap water (ph ~7.2-7.4).

Of course, right after I said I've only seen Frasier on top of the tank once, he had to get on top of it this morning...and it's the 10gl with the semi-domed hood, sigh.

Art

 

[annericebowl]

I have a CO2 reulator (cost me $139.99 plus shipping), CO2 tubing, a glass diffusor, and a 15# CO2 tank (empty) that I am too scared to setup...

None of my 5 planted tanks have CO2 or Excel, but I have a bottle of Excel sitting under my 30 gallon. I was using it, but noticed a problem with the shrimp, so I have stopped dosing.

My 30 gallon long is an open top tank--and I have a cat and a kitten. The closest thing near it is the dining room table and chairs, but they are far enough that they can't jump to the tank. Plus, anytime I leave the apartment, they are whisked away to my bedroom with the door closed, which also helps protect them from running away if maintenance comes by while I am not at home (I live in an apartment).

My other 5 tanks are all 2.5 to 10 gallons, and they are all on the kitchen counter. The cabinets above them are low enough that the cats can't get into them. I don't use my kitchen for much cooking. lol

Right now in the 30 gallon there are 5 torpedo barbs, around 100 RCS, 12 Atyopsis moluccensis, 1 sparkling gourami, an oto, 4 apple snails, and a whole lotta MTS. It's heavily planted with alot of different Cryptocoryne species, 2 different species of Anubias, dwarf sag, and I think it's creeping Jenny. I call this tank my second child. I am wanting to upgrade to a 75 gallon, especially now that I have the barbs in there, and they get up to 6 inches long, and I want to get Atya gabonensis.

Sorry for the rambling...lol

 

[EnzoLeya]

Sure do!!!! Stuarts the only one who likes to watch it though. I have one of our chairs in front of it so he can sit and watch all the fish. I have an Oscar and he eats live fish

(sorry) and that's Stuarts favorite part. When I put all the feeder fish in the tank is pretty busy and he will try and attack them for hours.

 

[artgecko]

EnzoLeya- Are you raising your own feeders or keeping them and "gut-loading" them? You might want to add a good cichlid pellet food to your oscar's diet because store-bought feeders are seldom very nutritous (I've never used them because they can also carry disease). I love the Omega One line of products and I believe they carry a large cichlid pellet. Hikari also makes some excellent cichlid foods.

Anne- I have a TON of MTS too! The funny thing is that almost all of my population got wiped out a few years ago and I had a single MTS left and now have thousands from just that one!

I have kept "mystery" snails before..the colored ones (blue, white, purple, etc) and even raised a batch of eggs through adulthood. Sadly, they don't like the water here at home, so I can't seem to keep them alive now.

I have only tried growing dwarf sag once and it pretty much died on me...vals die on me too for unknown reasons. I'll try uploading some pics of my tanks to photobucket and posting them some time soon (although my 46 is in NO shape to photograph atm.)

The current tank occupants:
10gl- guppies (immature), glowlight tetras, whitecloud mountain minnows (I can't say enough about these fish!), and kuhlii loaches (and tons of MTS). It is heavily planted medium light tank...java moss, wisteria, wendtii bronze crypts, and onyx sand.

20gl- shellie tank, multies and a single bristlenose pleco. Java ferns, java moss, and a huge anubias nana (all of the above rooted to lava rocks). Substrate is Cichlid sand. Lighting is a standard flourescent tube.

46gl- A single angelfish, a school of 6 rosey barbs, 4 serpae tetras, 1 female krib, 2 dojo loaches, several cories, mostly pandas and some melini, 1 bristlenose pleco, 1 clown pleco. Plants are currently java moss, rotala indica, and watersprite, although they aren't looking so hot at the moment. Substrate is flourite and regular gravel mixed. Lighting is a 96watt compact flourescent.

I want to eventually upgrade the 46gl to a 55 breeder or 75gl, upgrade the shellies to a 30gl or 40gl breeder, and upgrade the 10gl into a 20gl long or 30gl. I would also really love to have some rainbows in one of my community setups. I had a small school of neon blue dwarf rainbows at one time (that an internal parasite infection killed off) that were stunning and very hardy.

Art

 

[annericebowl]

If you were dosing Excel when you had vals and sags, then there is your problem. Excel will melt vals and sags.

Here is my 30 gallon long (pic taken with a camera phone):
Full tank:


Left side:


Right side:


Those were taken a few weeks ago, and the dwarg sag is really starting to grow in nicely.

My other tanks:

10 gallon: dwarf Cajun crayfish growout tank; nothing spectacular in this tank

5.5 gallon: Eco-Complete, Malaysian driftwood, Java moss, more of that plant that I think is creeping Jenny; CRS, bee shrimp, 2 unidentified shrimp species

Eclipse Hex 5 (5 gallon): gravel, driftwood, Anubias nana, Java moss, more of the creeping Jenny; 3 tube-mouthed pencilfish, snowball shrimp

2.5 gallon: gravel, petrified wood, Java ferns, creeping Jenny; betta named "Vinnie"

2.5 gallon: work in progress; platinum opaque PK male (it's a short-finned betta)

 

[kayfi]

i have an 80 gallon with large cyclids in the living room and a 35 gallon tank with frogs and other small "nice" fish in the bedroom.

the cat ignores both. sometimes she hops on the 35 to get out attention, but neither tank is a cat tv for us! fiona prefers the real tv!

 

[artgecko]

AnneRiceBowl- Yeah, I read about it melting vals AFTER it killed mine off... Didn't know that about the dwarf sag though. Thanks for the info.

Nice aquascaping! I wouldn't be able to leave half of the tank with low-growing plants...My tanks usually end up looking like "jungles" instead of gardens.

Art

 

[annericebowl]

Thanks! I am still working on the placement of the Cryptocoryne spiralis placement (the really tall green plant in the back). I'm not too happy with where it is now.

The only reason that it' full of slow growing plants is that I don't have as much time as I did when it was stuffed full of all kinds of stem plants. I had more of a Dutch style tank when I had all the stem plants.

 

[jack31]

Yes, Jack watches Kitten TV!

I have a 55 gallon and and a 30 gallon running.

The 55 gallon has two active aquatic turtles as well as 4-5 Giant Danios and some rosie red minnows (food).

The 30 gallon has one active aquatic turtle as well as 4-5 Giant Danios and some rosie red minnows (food).

Jack's favorite is the 30 gallon because he can actually touch the aquarium with his paws. The 55 gallon is in the living room and sits about a foot from the end table. He sits on the end table, balancing on his back feet and watches for 20-30 minutes at a time.

Leslie

 

[sharky]

OKAY ??? ya all
I have planeted low light tanks but the fish eat the plants every 6-10 weeks what am I do wrong??

 

[artgecko]

Sharky- A few Q's will help us help you

1. What type of fish? Some are more voracious plant-eaters than others.
2. What type of plants? Some grow slower than others...
3. What is your lighting (and how many hours is it on) and are you adding any ferts, etc?

Generally, if you have plant-munching fish, you'll want to go with more faster-growing plants (so that they can keep up with the fish). You could also go with some slow-growing less fish edible plants (i.e. anubias, java fern and moss).

Post back and I'll try to help ID the bad guy

Art

 

[sharky]

Originally Posted by artgecko

Sharky- A few Q's will help us help you

1. What type of fish? Some are more voracious plant-eaters than others.
2. What type of plants? Some grow slower than others...
3. What is your lighting (and how many hours is it on) and are you adding any ferts, etc?

Generally, if you have plant-munching fish, you'll want to go with more faster-growing plants (so that they can keep up with the fish). You could also go with some slow-growing less fish edible plants (i.e. anubias, java fern and moss).

Post back and I'll try to help ID the bad guy

Art

Preacox rainbows .. three of them .. one pitbull pleco ... my white clouds are good girls they do not eat plants

some moss( get it free

) , some long grass stuff from petsmart , the java ferns are a fav were gone in a flash ... Only a tough leave plant worked ( no idea what it was as she uses scientifc names and lists all of them on the glass

...

Lighting about 4-6 hours natural( winter up to 12 hours summer) ( the tanks are see thru lids and in the window

UMM yes occational fetilizer the tab kind and a water reminelizer