Cats are natural hunters so take care, make sure you have a good fitting lid on the tank.
Years ago we had a cat, and a hamster for the girls. We arrived home one night to find the hamster cage on the floor and open (it was the type that clipped onto a litter tray).
No sign of cat or hamster anywhere in the room and we feared the worst. I walked into the bedroom hunting out the cat. Turned on the light and there was the cat walking along behind the hamster as it followed along the skirting board. They had come out of the living room, down the passage and into the bedroom. The cat just looked at me as I retrieved the hamster with not a mark on it.
I still to this day think it was more by luck that the hamster survived and not that the cat decided it needed the extra exercise.
I guess this ties in with my last post as it concerns the same cat. I had set up a new four foot thirty gallon marine tank in the living room. The tank was set on a purpose built stand two feet of the ground so I could view it from my easy chair.
The cat watched avidly as the first couple of colourful damsel fish were added. It would sit in front of the tank and watch the fish, as soon as one went down to the sand it would pounce at the tank. As if pouncing on a bird as it landed.
This it did maybe half a dozen times until, I assume, it realised it couldn't catch them so it would just sit watching them before getting bored and walking off. A week or so later I introduced a new fish, different colour and species. As soon as the cat noticed it would go through the whole process again of lunging at the tank, but only when the new fish headed toward the sand.
Again same result. We went through this twice more as I completed the stocking, and each time the cat only targeted the new fish. Things then returned to normal and with no new fish being introduced the cat never bothered with it again.
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