Hi, everybody!

It's Deirdre (owner of Zorrito) posting on my sister Mary's account again. I'm writing because I am thinking about adopting a cat, and I'm wondering whether I have to radically change my setup for little Zorro. At the moment, he's in a six gallon eclipse which sits on one of those little black wooden stands. The set up is relatively stable, but wouldn't do too well if it were jumped upon...

So...am I crazy? Or does anyone else have cat(s)? And if so, how do you keep them from bothering the fish?

You see, I thought the kitty and fish might be great entertainment for each other - but I wouldn't want to set up a little food chain inadvertantly!!

Thanks for any advice! --D.

It seriously depends on the cat in question. I have two cats, and they don't bother the fish at all.
Even when I had a goldfish bowl (yikes!) they wouldn't touch it. I rescued a baby robin this summer and had it hanging around inside, the cats sniffed it and then left it alone.

I guess it all depends on what the cat you will be getting is like.

Jessica

The temperament of the cat is the main problem here. I have 2 cats myself, and they are both completely different. Jacomo, my Himi, doesnt even bother looking at the fish. He is like *See if I care!*, while Smokey is a little devil with anything that moves. I have found her as a little kitten sitting in my parakeets cage, cat on one end, parakeet on the other, and she threw down the cage a few times.....
Fish used to drive her equally crazy, until one fine day, while I was doing water changes and the tank hood was removed for cleaning, Smokey fell in, one big splash of a big cat! From that day on, she prefers to watch the fish from the distance. She has her nose in the 2 gl betta tanks every now and then, but no trying to get the fish, just watching. The 10 gl betta tanks are all covered....
Cats do have that natural instinct of chasing things, so its really hard to tell how a new cat would react to your fish, unless you get the cat from somebody else besides a shelter, who could tell you the cats characteristics....

Even if you adopt a cat from a shelter, if you gon a day when they're having adoptions, there should be workers there who know the cats ^_^. I know from experience, having been the cat person for some time at our local no kill shelter ^_^.

As for cats and fish, I currently have five tanks in my bedroom and two very large cats. One is a maine coon mix who weighs in at twenty pounds (of muscle and size! No fat!) and my other cat is a juvenile maine coon that we got from a local breeder. She's a hefty fourteen pounds herself, and still growing. With cats this large, they could do some serious damage to my tanks if they so chose (especially my betta tanks o_o). They do enjoy watching the fish and like to sleep around the tanks. In fact, when the tanks are dry, they sleep IN the tanks XD. Anyway, I have had little problem with them, as they don't try to do anything more sinister than paw the glass every once in a while. They don't even bother the open top quaranteen tank that I run, because well, water is wet and they don't like it :3. Unless you were thinking about getting a cat that likes water by nature (say a Turkish Van or Norwegian Forest Cat) Then you're probably fine. Also, if you adopt an adult cat from a shelter, then you know just how big the cat is going to get, and also bypass a lot of frenetic kitten activity where the youngster might be interested in the tank just because it's something cool to do XD. Adult cats also are much less likely to be adopted because everyone wants babies

So yes, there are my two cents ^_^.

I have one cat they never bug my
fish and my fish never bug my cat

but i recomend you to have a top to
your Aquarium because sometimes...
maby the cat wants to go and sit on top of the Aquarium
and maby he will just want to jump
on top of the Aquarium..

i find placing things like pots with plants or figureans on top of the tank stops my kitty frum attacing the fish. they dont jump up there because there is no room 4 them wen there is stuff up there. hope it helps .

i've never had a problem... my cat will go and look, then when my betta spike moves and flares, she's like *AH! it moved!!!* and scampers off lol... i think thats where he gets his big ego from hehe...

My family has *5* cats (all my life "no more pets" until I went to college, then they adopted a cat who had kittens, so unfair!!!)

When my two goldfish were just little and living in a too-small tank, they used to come home with me for long breaks. The cats were all fascinated with the fish, but they never actually tried to get to the fish.

The closest to disaster that ever happened was that I found the momma kitty on the shelf with the fishtank. She had knocked the lid off and was drinking the water. Why? Well, of course, it tasted like fish! Nevermind there were actually fish in there that she had no desire to get to:)

I think it depends a lot on the cat, but we have quite the selection:) Mostly ours just liked to look:)

I agree with the earlier posters, of getting to know the temperment of the cat in question. Find something laid back and lazy like our cats. Then fatten it up

~Adrienne