Crazylegs Tropical fish tank log (Ongoing)
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crazylegs
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Update no.3 Tank cycled
Ok so its been about 8 days since I started the tank and filled with water, Bacterial colony is up to strength in the filter as I have been testing every 24 hours after adding Ammonia to the water..
My last test readings this evening were..
Ammonia - 0.01
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 10
PH - 7.6
As you can see the Nitrite test is zero which is what it should be as this is the chemical that is toxic to the fish, and also the Ammonia reading is virtually zilch meaning the baterial colony are doing there job in breaking down the ammonia into Nitrite, then from nitrite into the non toxic nitrate which has a reading of 10ppm which is great as thats exactly what I'm after..
PH reading is 7.6 which means I have quite hard water where I live but thats cool as the fish I intend to keep are from hard water lakes in Africa..
Only just after a week and the tank is cycled..Had I not added filter squeezes from my bro's tank I would only be about a quarter cyled and not looking forward to another 3 weeks with an empty aquarium..As it was my little cheat helped a lot..
Whilst waiting for the aquarium to cycle I have put just a couple of plants in even though lake Tanganyka in africa doesn't have a great deal of plant life in it. This is really just to give the fish a little more cover to keep down aggression and just soften the look of the tank overall, they have plenty of caves in the rockwork to make there own but as in all aquariums fish will always try to make there own territory and keeping them from making direct line of sight contact is half the battle won...
Gonna post a couple of pics for this update..First the test kit which no Aquarist should be without, yes they are expensive around £25 but will repay you back many times over..Some fish cost that and knowing your water parameters before adding new fish gives you lots more confidence that they will survive because you know your water quality is good, and in the event an expensive new addition goes belly up and dies, will allow you to take the fish back to the Tropical fish shop and ask for a replacement or a refund..They normally like a sample of your water so they can test themselves and if your confident your water quality is good and they can see that, then they have no choice but to put it down to a poorly fish and offer your refund..So you see it works both ways..
Mini master Test kit...Pays for itself over time..
Couple of plants added just to soften the look and provide cover for the fish..
Tall plants wave around quite nicely in the powerhead flow.
No flash with this shot just the light from the T3
Going to carry on testing over the weekend and if everything stays stable then Monday it will be fishy time..
Ok so its been about 8 days since I started the tank and filled with water, Bacterial colony is up to strength in the filter as I have been testing every 24 hours after adding Ammonia to the water..
My last test readings this evening were..
Ammonia - 0.01
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 10
PH - 7.6
As you can see the Nitrite test is zero which is what it should be as this is the chemical that is toxic to the fish, and also the Ammonia reading is virtually zilch meaning the baterial colony are doing there job in breaking down the ammonia into Nitrite, then from nitrite into the non toxic nitrate which has a reading of 10ppm which is great as thats exactly what I'm after..
PH reading is 7.6 which means I have quite hard water where I live but thats cool as the fish I intend to keep are from hard water lakes in Africa..
Only just after a week and the tank is cycled..Had I not added filter squeezes from my bro's tank I would only be about a quarter cyled and not looking forward to another 3 weeks with an empty aquarium..As it was my little cheat helped a lot..
Whilst waiting for the aquarium to cycle I have put just a couple of plants in even though lake Tanganyka in africa doesn't have a great deal of plant life in it. This is really just to give the fish a little more cover to keep down aggression and just soften the look of the tank overall, they have plenty of caves in the rockwork to make there own but as in all aquariums fish will always try to make there own territory and keeping them from making direct line of sight contact is half the battle won...
Gonna post a couple of pics for this update..First the test kit which no Aquarist should be without, yes they are expensive around £25 but will repay you back many times over..Some fish cost that and knowing your water parameters before adding new fish gives you lots more confidence that they will survive because you know your water quality is good, and in the event an expensive new addition goes belly up and dies, will allow you to take the fish back to the Tropical fish shop and ask for a replacement or a refund..They normally like a sample of your water so they can test themselves and if your confident your water quality is good and they can see that, then they have no choice but to put it down to a poorly fish and offer your refund..So you see it works both ways..
Mini master Test kit...Pays for itself over time..
Couple of plants added just to soften the look and provide cover for the fish..
Tall plants wave around quite nicely in the powerhead flow.
No flash with this shot just the light from the T3
Going to carry on testing over the weekend and if everything stays stable then Monday it will be fishy time..
crazylegs
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Nasty little fish
Had to post this up it was posted up in one of my tropical fish forums, and makes for gruesome reading. If you are of a nervous disposition you may want to pass this post by... ***You have been warned***
I thought it was a myth
The Candiria catfish lives on blood. It is a pencil thin transparent animal that grows from one to six inches in length and lives much of it's existence crawling through the muddy bottom of Amazonian rivers and tributaries. With it's gill spines and teeth, it spends most of it's time attaching itself underneath the gills of larger fish. There it inflates it's gill spines and lodges itself within, rasping away at the delicate membranes and drinking it's fill until the host goes belly up and the candiria, now gorged, swims down to the bottom or off in search of other prey.
Now, here's the good part. The Candiria catfish, being blind and somewhat primitive overall, relies on it's refined sense of smell to find sources of food. Like the shark, it can follow the trail of blood in the water. In addition to tracing blood, the candiru has urinophillic tendencies which allow it to follow the trail of urine to it's prey -- any prey of any size
Primitive and blind as the Candiria is, it's lust for blood often allows it to confuse the opening of the human p***s or v****a for a juicy fish gill. Wired as it is, the candiru often makes a quick and fatal decision to swim upstream in it's search for a blood gorged membrane upon which to feed. Due to it's small size, a woman may not see the fish as it enters until it well hidden, therefore she may end up feeling the pain of a Candiria infestation without knowing why. A man is not so fortunate for on him the urethra is the front door. Because there is no intermediary space to check in bags, the initial shock of pain is usually accompanied by the sight of this wriggling fish crashing the gates. With advance warning, this unfortunate man -- possibly the most unfortunate man in all the world -- begins crying and vainly trying to grab the wriggling tail fins of the catfish as it inches it's way up his urethra to the blood source. At this point, two things prevent successful removal of the fish: one being the slick coating of mucus filming the fish body; the other
the same mechanism that allows the candiru to attach to the gills of a maniacally swimming fish opens up like an umbrella within the urethra. Barbs on the ends of these gills dig into the urethral wall and as one can imagine; there is probably a frantic, horrifying tug o' war between this pain-maddened human and what is essentially a kidney stone with a brain. Predation ensues after the battle is lost and as the little fish disappears into the p***s, the choice is inevitably reduced to which sort of excrutiating ordeal you choose to make of your end. A man thus afflicted in the wilds of the Brazillian Amazon must either do the castration or let the fish continue to creep in. Within minutes, the time for making decisions is over.
Now free of resistance from the outside world, the fish wriggles and digs it's way up this scented golden trail until it finds Candiria Valhalla. This is the wall of your bladder; the blood engorged membrane of all the candiru's primitive hopes and dreams. Ignorant of the screams and mad dancing going on in the outer world, it positions itself and begins slashing away with spines and teeth at everything within reach. Blood pours out of every opening the Candiru makes and if the slashing attack of the Candiria breaches an artery, the human prey be it woman or man, will suffer the swift agony found in an uncontrollable bleed out. Considering the source of entry, this will most likely not be a pretty way to die. If the candiru doesn't die of drowning in an excess of food, it will earn it's reputation as the Vampire Fish of Brazil. Happily it will live in there, spreading perotinitis throughout the human host due to the close proximity of open wounds to the muddy waste output of a fish that is suckling and s******g out your own digested insides.
Life for the Candiria doesn't get any better than this...
Needless to say one of those fish will not be making its way anywhere near my Aquarium..
And yes I read this same post with my legs tightly crossed..
Other people have reported that when men swim in these lakes and rivers they always wear a condom, this stops any nasty from entering where it shouldn't..
Hope you enjoyed reading that..It was kinda interesting in a weird way..and no human or fish were hurt in the compiling of this post..
Had to post this up it was posted up in one of my tropical fish forums, and makes for gruesome reading. If you are of a nervous disposition you may want to pass this post by... ***You have been warned***
I thought it was a myth
The Candiria catfish lives on blood. It is a pencil thin transparent animal that grows from one to six inches in length and lives much of it's existence crawling through the muddy bottom of Amazonian rivers and tributaries. With it's gill spines and teeth, it spends most of it's time attaching itself underneath the gills of larger fish. There it inflates it's gill spines and lodges itself within, rasping away at the delicate membranes and drinking it's fill until the host goes belly up and the candiria, now gorged, swims down to the bottom or off in search of other prey.
Now, here's the good part. The Candiria catfish, being blind and somewhat primitive overall, relies on it's refined sense of smell to find sources of food. Like the shark, it can follow the trail of blood in the water. In addition to tracing blood, the candiru has urinophillic tendencies which allow it to follow the trail of urine to it's prey -- any prey of any size
Primitive and blind as the Candiria is, it's lust for blood often allows it to confuse the opening of the human p***s or v****a for a juicy fish gill. Wired as it is, the candiru often makes a quick and fatal decision to swim upstream in it's search for a blood gorged membrane upon which to feed. Due to it's small size, a woman may not see the fish as it enters until it well hidden, therefore she may end up feeling the pain of a Candiria infestation without knowing why. A man is not so fortunate for on him the urethra is the front door. Because there is no intermediary space to check in bags, the initial shock of pain is usually accompanied by the sight of this wriggling fish crashing the gates. With advance warning, this unfortunate man -- possibly the most unfortunate man in all the world -- begins crying and vainly trying to grab the wriggling tail fins of the catfish as it inches it's way up his urethra to the blood source. At this point, two things prevent successful removal of the fish: one being the slick coating of mucus filming the fish body; the other
the same mechanism that allows the candiru to attach to the gills of a maniacally swimming fish opens up like an umbrella within the urethra. Barbs on the ends of these gills dig into the urethral wall and as one can imagine; there is probably a frantic, horrifying tug o' war between this pain-maddened human and what is essentially a kidney stone with a brain. Predation ensues after the battle is lost and as the little fish disappears into the p***s, the choice is inevitably reduced to which sort of excrutiating ordeal you choose to make of your end. A man thus afflicted in the wilds of the Brazillian Amazon must either do the castration or let the fish continue to creep in. Within minutes, the time for making decisions is over.
Now free of resistance from the outside world, the fish wriggles and digs it's way up this scented golden trail until it finds Candiria Valhalla. This is the wall of your bladder; the blood engorged membrane of all the candiru's primitive hopes and dreams. Ignorant of the screams and mad dancing going on in the outer world, it positions itself and begins slashing away with spines and teeth at everything within reach. Blood pours out of every opening the Candiru makes and if the slashing attack of the Candiria breaches an artery, the human prey be it woman or man, will suffer the swift agony found in an uncontrollable bleed out. Considering the source of entry, this will most likely not be a pretty way to die. If the candiru doesn't die of drowning in an excess of food, it will earn it's reputation as the Vampire Fish of Brazil. Happily it will live in there, spreading perotinitis throughout the human host due to the close proximity of open wounds to the muddy waste output of a fish that is suckling and s******g out your own digested insides.
Life for the Candiria doesn't get any better than this...
Needless to say one of those fish will not be making its way anywhere near my Aquarium..
And yes I read this same post with my legs tightly crossed..
Other people have reported that when men swim in these lakes and rivers they always wear a condom, this stops any nasty from entering where it shouldn't..
Hope you enjoyed reading that..It was kinda interesting in a weird way..and no human or fish were hurt in the compiling of this post..
Last edited:
Armour-reinforced swimwear anyone? 
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Yeah i've known about these little buggers for many years....
Nasty!
Nasty!
crazylegs
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Not long now Taffycat just been letting the aquarium settle for a while and establish before adding my fish, Still keep changing my mind over what I'm going to stock in there though, which is partly to blame for why its taken longer than I thought it would before I got my fish in...
Better to take the time and get it right first time out, rather than make a mistake and add the wrong type of fish..
Better to take the time and get it right first time out, rather than make a mistake and add the wrong type of fish..
Crazylegs, you now have me looking at fishtanks when going to Pet Shops!
Never realised there was so many different types of tanks out their.
Still have the round bowl type from my childhood, now used as a plant pot!
It's an interesting thread that i have read from the start.
Never realised there was so many different types of tanks out their.
Still have the round bowl type from my childhood, now used as a plant pot!
It's an interesting thread that i have read from the start.
Taffycat
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crazylegs said:Not long now Taffycat just been letting the aquarium settle for a while and establish before adding my fish, Still keep changing my mind over what I'm going to stock in there though, which is partly to blame for why its taken longer than I thought it would before I got my fish in...
Better to take the time and get it right first time out, rather than make a mistake and add the wrong type of fish..
I reckon they will be in safe-hands with you CL and be happy in the environment you've created for them
It's always so good when people consider the welfare of their pets like that, be they scaley or furry I'm really looking forward to seeing them though.Feckit, I always stop to gaze at the fish in our local garden centre. (I always "chat" to the rodents too
) They have a tank of "resident" fish (set slightly apart from the ones which are for sale.) I don't know what they are, they are quite big and golden-coloured, although not a "conventional goldfish" if you see what I mean...? Anyway, they are a friendly lot and always group together to come and gaze back at whoever is looking in at them Yes, I know they are probably hoping to be fed... but I like to think of them as just being friendly and wanting to hob-nob a bit 
Rush
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Golden Barbs were the blighters i had ..100% nutters swim in swarms and like to jump into the water filter opening..makes a great site when theres about 6..they die quickly if numbers are less 
..not to be stuck in with chiclids though ..I love this thread 
..not to be stuck in with chiclids though ..I love this thread
crazylegs
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Update no.4 Adding the Fish
Well where we up to now..
I know some of you have been getting impatient waiting for the next instalment of the tank log, but I have just been waiting for the right time before making my decision, and that has given my aquarium more time to mature which can only be a good thing..
Today I went and bought some fish for the aquarium I went to Wildwoods in Enfield Middlesex a specialist in African Cichlids, and one of the best tropical fish shops around these parts, they have been around at least 25 years to my knowledge and have some knowledgeable staff there..
Anyway what fish did I buy I hear you all thinking! (Yes I'm clairvoyant) well after some deliberation and time to research properly the last few weeks, I settled on a pair of Julidochromis Transcriptus, why well for one they are one of the more peaceful of the Tanganiykan cichlids, and they look fantastic with their colouration pattern and this particular species only grows to around 6-8cm maximum so the right size for my tank..Oh and they look very cute..
I will be adding more fish as time goes on and I will update the Tank log as I do..
Pics I hear you say wheres the pics...Well without further ado..
Polystyrene box for travel from LTFS to home this keeps the fish warm and dark making for the best possible stress free environment..
Floating the bag helps to equalise the water temperature between your aquarium water and whats in the bag..Note the aquarium light is off whilst doing this, leave for 10 minutes or so..I'm going to net them and place them in as opposed to just tipping the bag into the tank water and all..
All ready to be released into there new home..
No hiding behind the furniture you two..
One in one to go..(Ooohh its nice and warm and cosy in here) hurry up the waters lovely..
Hey wait for me..(yeah your right this Gaffs not bad, built in central heating hot and cold running water, free bed and board and is that a Bar I see in the corner behind that Coral stone)..
Plenty of caves and places to hide away and make our own..(Can we get a mortgage on this place)..
I think this place is just fine! (were going to like it here, Love the algae on the rock it gives a certain character to the place)..
Next time it will be adding more occupants to the tank and we'll see how they get on with the Juli's...By the way thought I might aswell tell you their names are Bubble and Squeak...Don't ask..
Hope you all enjoyed this instalment, keep an eye out for the next..Kevin..
Well where we up to now..
I know some of you have been getting impatient waiting for the next instalment of the tank log, but I have just been waiting for the right time before making my decision, and that has given my aquarium more time to mature which can only be a good thing..
Today I went and bought some fish for the aquarium I went to Wildwoods in Enfield Middlesex a specialist in African Cichlids, and one of the best tropical fish shops around these parts, they have been around at least 25 years to my knowledge and have some knowledgeable staff there..
Anyway what fish did I buy I hear you all thinking! (Yes I'm clairvoyant) well after some deliberation and time to research properly the last few weeks, I settled on a pair of Julidochromis Transcriptus, why well for one they are one of the more peaceful of the Tanganiykan cichlids, and they look fantastic with their colouration pattern and this particular species only grows to around 6-8cm maximum so the right size for my tank..Oh and they look very cute..
I will be adding more fish as time goes on and I will update the Tank log as I do..
Pics I hear you say wheres the pics...Well without further ado..
Polystyrene box for travel from LTFS to home this keeps the fish warm and dark making for the best possible stress free environment..
Floating the bag helps to equalise the water temperature between your aquarium water and whats in the bag..Note the aquarium light is off whilst doing this, leave for 10 minutes or so..I'm going to net them and place them in as opposed to just tipping the bag into the tank water and all..
All ready to be released into there new home..
One in one to go..(Ooohh its nice and warm and cosy in here) hurry up the waters lovely..
Hey wait for me..(yeah your right this Gaffs not bad, built in central heating hot and cold running water, free bed and board and is that a Bar I see in the corner behind that Coral stone)..
Plenty of caves and places to hide away and make our own..(Can we get a mortgage on this place)..
I think this place is just fine! (were going to like it here, Love the algae on the rock it gives a certain character to the place)..
Next time it will be adding more occupants to the tank and we'll see how they get on with the Juli's...By the way thought I might aswell tell you their names are Bubble and Squeak...Don't ask..
Hope you all enjoyed this instalment, keep an eye out for the next..Kevin..
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Great stuf CL ...
Did you knowingly get a "pair" or are you trusting to luck? Are you gonna get a brine shrimp 'factory' going to feed 'em?
Did you knowingly get a "pair" or are you trusting to luck? Are you gonna get a brine shrimp 'factory' going to feed 'em?
Ian
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Really enjoying reading this, your new purchase looks quite happy in there How big are they at the moment, they look a little smaller than the fully grown 6-8cm?
You're making me really want to get a tank, but I just don't think I'd have the time to properly dedicate to it - a fishtank screensaver will have to do
How big are they at the moment, they look a little smaller than the fully grown 6-8cm?You're making me really want to get a tank, but I just don't think I'd have the time to properly dedicate to it - a fishtank screensaver will have to do
crazylegs
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Update no.5 We have baby's
After the last update Muck's asked if I had just trusted to luck on whether Bubble and Squeak were a pair or not, well I decided to leave stocking the fish for a while, while the 2 Juli's got to find there way around there new home and whether they would pair up or not..
Glad I did as about 6 to 8 weeks after they first went in they started showing signs of being parents, first they started removing large amounts of gravel from under the coral stone and cleaning under there all the time, after a few weeks of them going in and out of the cave they had made I just knew they had laid eggs in there and a few weeks later my suspicions were correct when I noticed tiny little baby fish around a couple of millimetre long swimming close to the rock right at the entrance to the cave itself, whenever mum or dad came by they shooed them back into the cave again.
I slowly nurtured the young on crushed flake and some brine shrimp now and again and they were starting to venture just outside the cave entrance at dinner times..I cut back on the amount of water changes and my cleaning rituals, I wanted to give them every chance of surviving and constantly changing the water and taking everything out of the tank and cleaning would have probably been there downfall, so in this case less is more!..
The Algae took hold a little quicker but I didn't mind as the baby fish were supplementing there diet by eating a little of this from the rocks in the aquarium.
I'm sure mum and dad have had a couple of clutches of eggs as there are a few fish that are larger than some of the others by quite a margin..
Got some pics to post up which I took but the babies being so small and really hard to creep up on means I'll have to wait a little longer for some really great pics, but as you can see they are like little mini-me's of their parents..
Enjoy..
Daddy with one of the bigger babies from the first clutch
Heres mum keeping an eye on this pair.. Cute aren't they
Heres one baby from the first batch and another baby from the second batch, notice the difference in size I would say theres around 4 weeks between them..
You wouldn't believe how hard it is to photograph something just a few millimetres long and that move as fast as lightning and never stay still for any length of time.. Tis bl**dy hard work..
Mum on patrol which keeps her very busy..I think dads inside the cave watching DVD's, his favourites 20,000 leagues under the sea.. 
Back soon folks
After the last update Muck's asked if I had just trusted to luck on whether Bubble and Squeak were a pair or not, well I decided to leave stocking the fish for a while, while the 2 Juli's got to find there way around there new home and whether they would pair up or not..
Glad I did as about 6 to 8 weeks after they first went in they started showing signs of being parents, first they started removing large amounts of gravel from under the coral stone and cleaning under there all the time, after a few weeks of them going in and out of the cave they had made I just knew they had laid eggs in there and a few weeks later my suspicions were correct when I noticed tiny little baby fish around a couple of millimetre long swimming close to the rock right at the entrance to the cave itself, whenever mum or dad came by they shooed them back into the cave again.
I slowly nurtured the young on crushed flake and some brine shrimp now and again and they were starting to venture just outside the cave entrance at dinner times..I cut back on the amount of water changes and my cleaning rituals, I wanted to give them every chance of surviving and constantly changing the water and taking everything out of the tank and cleaning would have probably been there downfall, so in this case less is more!..
The Algae took hold a little quicker but I didn't mind as the baby fish were supplementing there diet by eating a little of this from the rocks in the aquarium.
I'm sure mum and dad have had a couple of clutches of eggs as there are a few fish that are larger than some of the others by quite a margin..
Got some pics to post up which I took but the babies being so small and really hard to creep up on means I'll have to wait a little longer for some really great pics, but as you can see they are like little mini-me's of their parents..
Enjoy..
Daddy with one of the bigger babies from the first clutch
Heres mum keeping an eye on this pair..
Cute aren't they
Heres one baby from the first batch and another baby from the second batch, notice the difference in size I would say theres around 4 weeks between them..
You wouldn't believe how hard it is to photograph something just a few millimetres long and that move as fast as lightning and never stay still for any length of time..
Tis bl**dy hard work..
Mum on patrol which keeps her very busy..I think dads inside the cave watching DVD's, his favourites 20,000 leagues under the sea..
Back soon folks
cirianz
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Very cool thread CL
Was very interesting & I love your wee babies
Was especially interesting to learn why I'm supposed to let the water in the tank cycle for a couple of weeks (nothing tropical in my tank so not nearly the same sort of preparation time)
The guy at the shop said something about nitrogen levels, but being very fish ignorant (last time I had fish all it took was goldfish, gravel, oxygen weed & a bowl) I asumed it was mostly something to do with getting rid of all the crap they put in the water to make it fit for human consumption... if not tastebuds.
He told us to bring a sample of the water back in a couple of weeks & he'd test it & let us know if it was ok for fish yet.
I must confess that I was very tempted to get tropical fish, but, as you said, they are very expensive and, as I gather from reading this, require a lot more know-how than your average goldfish.
One thing I was wondering, I know it's not going to 'speed things up' here, but would it help get the system in balance if I introduced some bacteria from a fellow goldfish owner's filter in the same way here in a cold-water system? Or would it be counterproductive?
Oh, & TC, as to cats. When John & I went on honeymoon he put his cat in a cattery (this place didn't cost more, but whoever built it loved cats! It was so much 'cat heaven' inside that I think we'dve done better staying there ourselves & sending pumpkin on the honeymoon! But this place had a inbuilt 'cat TV' ie a fishtank (goldfish) built into the wall & visible from both sides of the wall. I'd've thought they would've all had nervous breakdowns or something but the fish didn't seem at all fazed by the feline attention. It was very cool But if you've got something like a welsh dresser or similar cabinet & tuck it back so it's partly covered then, so long as it's got a lid, it should be safe from being knocked over or the like by the cats.
Was very interesting & I love your wee babies
Was especially interesting to learn why I'm supposed to let the water in the tank cycle for a couple of weeks (nothing tropical in my tank so not nearly the same sort of preparation time)
The guy at the shop said something about nitrogen levels, but being very fish ignorant (last time I had fish all it took was goldfish, gravel, oxygen weed & a bowl) I asumed it was mostly something to do with getting rid of all the crap they put in the water to make it fit for human consumption... if not tastebuds.
He told us to bring a sample of the water back in a couple of weeks & he'd test it & let us know if it was ok for fish yet.
I must confess that I was very tempted to get tropical fish, but, as you said, they are very expensive and, as I gather from reading this, require a lot more know-how than your average goldfish.
One thing I was wondering, I know it's not going to 'speed things up' here, but would it help get the system in balance if I introduced some bacteria from a fellow goldfish owner's filter in the same way here in a cold-water system? Or would it be counterproductive?
Oh, & TC, as to cats. When John & I went on honeymoon he put his cat in a cattery (this place didn't cost more, but whoever built it loved cats! It was so much 'cat heaven' inside that I think we'dve done better staying there ourselves & sending pumpkin on the honeymoon! But this place had a inbuilt 'cat TV' ie a fishtank (goldfish) built into the wall & visible from both sides of the wall. I'd've thought they would've all had nervous breakdowns or something but the fish didn't seem at all fazed by the feline attention. It was very cool
But if you've got something like a welsh dresser or similar cabinet & tuck it back so it's partly covered then, so long as it's got a lid, it should be safe from being knocked over or the like by the cats.