| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
|---|
| 362.1 | Cat T.V. | LAIDBK::SHERRICK | Molly :^) | Thu Oct 23 1986 14:47 | 15 |
| Hi Cin!!
I have a friend who lives up in Westford Mass. who has 6 cats
PLUS kittens in addition to her 55 gallon AND 80 gallon tanks.
The 55 gallon tank has anemonies in it, and the larger tank has
salt water fish and shrimp. She's had the cats living in the house
with the fish for about 8 years, and has no problem. The cats are
really interested (cat T.V.!) but they've made no attempt to bother
the fish or drown themselves in the tank. Who knows whether that
is normal cat behavior, but at least we know it can be done. If
you're interested in more info on my friend send me some mail and
I'll give you her number. She might be a good source of info about
the fish - anyway. Is there a fish notesfile???
Good luck!
Molly
|
| 362.2 | Tempting morsels | BLITZN::BITTROLFF | Debbie Bittrolff | Thu Oct 23 1986 15:24 | 15 |
| I had two 55 gal fish tanks for many years (lost custody in divorce)
and never had any problems. The cats would watch what was going
on but never made any attempts to go fishing. The tanks did have
plastic covers to help slow down evaporation which you may or may
not want to use. In fact am planning on another tank in the near
future.
On the other had I also at one time had a large cage with finches
in it which drove the cats and me nuts. The cats were constantly
attempting to catch one of the finches if the bird landed on the
side of the cage or was purched close to the top. Several (finch)
fatalaties occured (finches also now living in peace at ex's).
Debbie
|
| 362.3 | Cover the fish tank to be safe | HECTOR::RICHARDSON | | Thu Oct 23 1986 15:44 | 8 |
| I used to keep fish as well as cats. (No fish, these days.) I had
a screen cover for the fish tank just in case the kitten decided
to try to catch his own dinner. I don't know if he ever tried it,
though, but he sure got a lot of mileage out of watching the fish
swim around inside (almost as good as chasing flies!!). I would
think you could cut down a lot on potential problems by making a
cover for your tank; I didn't have one that was really big enough
for kitty to jump into easily anyways (also, he HATED water).
|
| 362.4 | Pretty boring..... | CHAPLN::ROMBERG | Kathy Romberg DTN 276-8189 | Thu Oct 23 1986 15:54 | 20 |
|
Our original family kitty had a fish tank to occupy his dull
moments. About the worst he ever did was redirect the water
returning from the filter to the tank onto the floor. Occasionally,
when there were fish that liked to jump (like tinfoil barbs) and
they jumped out of the tank he would watch them flop around on the
floor. Other than that, nothing exciting happened. He wasn't one who
liked water though.
Their current cat just got a tank for my father's birthday 2
weeks ago. The first thing he tried to do was to walk across the
aquarium cover. I was waiting for it to collapse and for him to fall
in. Neither happened. I don't know what his reaction to the fish was
cuz I had to leave just as they were let loose, but after that
original inspection, T-2 didn't really care.
Kathy
|
| 362.5 | Cover it! | REGENT::GETTYS | Bob Gettys N1BRM | Thu Oct 23 1986 22:16 | 9 |
| A good friend of mine has both cats and a fish tank
(I've known him for about 25 years and the cats [others] and the
fish tank predated me!) with no problems. He put the tank on a
high (about 4 foot) cabinet and covered the top with hardware
cloth (a metal mesh with about 1/4 inch square openings). You
would occasionaly find a cat asleep on top of the tank! (It had
a light that was always on, and thus warm!).
/s/ Bob
|
| 362.6 | | SQM::RAVAN | | Fri Oct 24 1986 19:44 | 10 |
| No direct experience here, but some friends had a Burmese who loved
to sit on top of their tank and watch the fishes. I *think* they
had a problem with the cat detaching hoses from things; if you let
the cat get near the tank at all, any vital (for the fish) equipment
ought to be secured against playful felines.
(In case you haven't found it already, there's a fish conference
at PICA::FISH; press KP7, etc.)
-b
|
| 362.7 | Cats in Another Bowl | ELWOOD::HERTZBERG | | Fri Oct 24 1986 20:27 | 19 |
| A few weeks ago, one of our new kittens, Andy of Andy and Fergie,
was seeing how much trouble she could get herself into by climbing
around bathroom fixtures. I was sitting in the next room when I
heard a very strange sound...
GLUMP..............GLIMP..GLIMP (more or less)
I went to investigate, and found Andy sitting in the room next
to the bathroom, looking up at me with those big orange eyes. All
of a sudden, I realized that she was soaking wet from the navel
down. I said "Andy, how could you?". She said "I meant to do that".
I dried her off.
The moral is, even if the cat doesn't necessarily want to bother
with water, the cat may find itself bothering with water as a result
of circumstances beyone its control! Be warned.
P.S. Andy has a new nickname: DUNK
|
| 362.8 | | STUBBI::B_REINKE | | Mon Oct 27 1986 17:23 | 3 |
| We've lost birds and gerbil's to cats but never fish. Our cats
also liked to watch the fish and lie on the warm cover.
|
| 362.9 | | NEBVAX::BELFORTE | | Tue Oct 28 1986 15:06 | 7 |
| I never lost fish either, just lots of hoses. One of ours, Chessie,
likes the feel of the air blowing in her mouth, so she chews the
hoses. She is also the retarded one who sits in front of the fan
in the summer time, with her mouth hanging open (not panting, just
enjoying the breeze on her tongue).
M-L
|
| 362.10 | Another Fish Tale | TIGEMS::SCHELBERG | | Wed Oct 29 1986 15:57 | 8 |
| I had a cat and fishes too.......and my experience has been the
same as most of the answers. He loved to watch the fish .....but
he never tried to get the fishes out. In fact he got bored with
them after a few months and that is all I can say about that fish
tale. Catnaps are better...
|
| 362.11 | Felines & Fins - A great conbination! | JACOB::TRACHMAN | | Wed Oct 29 1986 20:03 | 16 |
| Enjoy it! I've had cats and fish for many years with no problems
at all. The best part of the tank is the entertainment value for
the cats! BE SURE to place a solid cover firmly on the top of
the tank - make sure the openings for the filter tubing are
partially covered also so the little dears can't reach into
the tank and grab a quick din din. I had two 29 gallon highs -
on a stand - cats on and off the top tank constantly - cats
crawling around on the bottom tank at will. When I started
moving apartments every two years or so, it was easier to
just take the cats - I passed the tanks on to a young man
who was less of a Gypsy! My 2 brown girls and 3 black boys
really miss their friends with fins! I'm glad I had the
sense to take pictures of the felines sitting enthralled
in front of the tanks!
E. T.
|
| 362.12 | Only Me? Naaww | JETSAM::OLEARY | It Isn't Pretty Being EASY | Fri Nov 14 1986 20:35 | 18 |
|
I can't believe this - I always thought that fish-tank-killing-cats
were common! I had a 10-galloner while living in Boston several
years ago, and my kitty Katie was fairly new to us. I started out
with about 10 fish.
One day I was down down to 9 or 10, then to 7. Several days later
I caught my cat with her paw reaching inside the tank (it was covered,
but there was a small opening for the water heater/hoses). The
paw looked 2X bigger than normal, and was able to knock over the
water wheel house at the bottom! But how could she get a fishey?
The next day I found a dried, dead, chewed guppie in the corner of the apt.
(I could smell fish) and we were down to a whopping 6 in the tank.
It seems that the cat was able to force the fish to jump out of
the small opening, and chomped on it upon it landing...
Mike
|
| 362.13 | Cat/bird/fish/kid stories | ESPN::HENDRICKS | Holly | Wed Nov 19 1986 01:03 | 26 |
| I had cats and fish for many years. Caz used to love to lie on
top of the tank, but I had to make sure it was on securely, because
once it got caught on diagonal corners of the tank and kind of spun
around, dunking him. I heard a splash and lots of movement, and
found that he had "cat"-apulted himself out of the fish tank.
My cats and my friend's samoyed used to go out with me on my
sailboat. I had one cat that would even ride on my chest if I was
paddling around on an air mattress. (That's trust!)
The *cat* never did too much damage to the fish, but one day my friend's
two-year-old was over, and I didn't notice him twiddling any of
the controls. The next morning the fish had all cooked :-( because
Aaron had turned the heat all the way up. I felt terrible.
I had a cat and a bird when I was twelve. The bird's cage sat on
the kitchen shelf, and the cat loved to sit on top of it. She never
teased the bird, and the bird, surprisingly, never seemed to mind.
One more thing about water--my manager told me that his family lost
some kittens who got too adventurous around the swimming pool this
summer. Might be a good thing to note for folks who have pools
or neighbors with pools.
Enough stories!
Holly
|