Including an aquarium in your home can provide a calming, peaceful effect. The soft sound of the running water, aesthetically pleasing lighting, and slow movements of your aquatic pets is amusing for both children and adults alike. However, the peace of this may be easily broken if you also own a cat.
Cats often view aquariums as a highly enjoyable show designed specifically for their amusement. The movement of the fish triggers their hunting abilities, and flowing water draws their attention as cats prefer fresh water for drinking.
Their antics may leave you frustrated while you clean up water droplets off the floor, clean filters of cat hair, and try to problem solve keeping your fish safe. Take a look at a few of these tried and true solutions in order to keep a fish aquarium when you have cats, without the kitty drama.
The Price of Keeping Animals
There is a price to keeping animals, and it isn’t related to your budget. Rather, it can be measured in the key attributes it provides to those within your household. They provide companionship, responsibility, and an ability to recognize compassion and kindness– invaluable lessons for both children and adults alike.
They also can be a tad bit frustrating from time to time, especially if you have a species clash. Short of deciding to get rid of one animal over another, you have to discover a way to make your animals co-inhabitat. Luckily, this is a fairly easy process when dealing with the age old problem of cat versus fish.
Tank Location
Where you place your tank can be rather inviting to cats, or discourage them from getting too close. Tanks placed in built in recesses, bookcases, or on specially designed stands are not as inviting to cats as those placed on tables or shelves that provide plenty of landing space around it.
Natural born climbers and jumpers, if a cat feels it can get a foothold next to or in your aquarium without any effort, it is going to do so. Areas that are recessed do not provide as much room both around or over a tank for a cat to land safely. Stands created just for an aquarium generally leaves little to no room below the tank either.
Of course, you can always place the aquarium in a room inaccessible to your cat, such as an office, or bedroom. But since most people like to enjoy their tank out in the open, this isn’t always feasible.
Also avoid placing things around the tank that would encourage your cat to hop, skip, and jump its way to the top of your lid. Speaking of lids…
Keeping a Lid On It
Most aquariums of any size have a tank lid over the top of them that provides a way to secure both filters and lighting. It also is very protective and helps keep out household dust and curious cat paws. If your aquarium is within cat’s reach, then ensuring a well fit lid is in place will discourage the cat from doing much more than simply using it as a lookout perch.
If your tank doesn’t have a lid, and you have no way to place it out of reach, consider creating a lid of some sort. Large lace doilies are pretty additions over the top of a traditional fish bowl and can be secured with a bit of ribbon or rubber band.
Issues with Hair
Cat hair. It gets everywhere doesn’t it? And even if you have a well lidded aquarium, chances are it will make its way in there as well. With that being said, a good filtration system will more or less take care of this issue with very little problem. If you are curious about the types of filters that might be best for your tank set up, get more details here.
Water Filter … Drinking Fountain?
Another issue you may run across is the awesome filtered drinking water you are providing your cat … I mean fish. Cats will most likely be drawn to the flow of water your type of filter may provide, and see it as a personal drinking challenge.
A good lid that fully encloses the filtration system will keep this from becoming a problem, but if you do have water accessible, you can take a few other steps to try and keep your cat from using it as their main source of hydration.
Invest in a fresh water filtration system for your cat. These plug into the wall to create a small pool of drinking water fed by a consistent, small stream, trickle, or fountain like spurt of water. You can also line the lid with double sided tape, or take a small bit of wire mesh or chicken wire and create a cover for the exposed area.
I’m a 20-something stay-at-home mother and wife. I have an amazing husband, a beautiful daughter, two loving dogs, and a lazy cat. I wouldn’t change my life for anything! I love to read, listen to music, cook and blog!
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