Tank lid vs. cat...

[Crowbar]

Hi there, friends.

A little backstory: I have a 32 biocube. Gerry-rigged a lid out of an old biocube lid and some eggcrate so that I could upgrade my light and sold the LED lid to recoup some costs. Lid was working great, until my kitten figured out how warm it is under the light and then got too big to crouch on the eggcrate. Now it's sagging and pulling away from where I siliconed it, and he is 100% going to fall in one of these days.

I've seen some of the custom lids folks have made and they look nice, but I'm not sure if they'd hold up to a cat jumping on it? :| I can keep him off when I'm home, but he simply will not learn that I don't want him up there. I keep waking up to him sitting on it and it creaking under his weight.

Otherwise, I guess, my only real option is to get a new biocube LED lid and downgrade my light. Not the biggest deal, my coral isn't exactly high-end (a few LPS, softies, zoas. Anemonies have positioned themselves to take up most of the light), I'm just worried I won't like the shift in light quality.

Suggestions? That don't involve getting rid of the cat, haha. Or DIY. I'm reaaallly not good at DIY.

 

[Mike from TN]

Before replacing the lid, maybe try some tactics to keep the kitten off the tank.
We have three cats. Two are very lazy and could care less about the tank but one is (was) always on the arm of the chair with his front paws on the tank glass. It was only a matter of time before he “took the plunge”!
We started squirting him with a spray bottle of water every time he went near the tank. Harmless and causes no pain. Within a week, he started ignoring the tank.
I do set a lid on the tank overnight just in case though.
worth a try!

 

[AirForestOne]

What about putting some tin foil around the edges of it? Or making a like 2-3 inch tall wall around the top of the tank out of tin foil. Plenty of people put it on their countertops to teach the cats not to do that lol

otherwise I agree with above that doing a spray bottle for a while will get them to stop.
Or he’ll maybe put a cookie sheet on top at night and put water in it so when the cat hops up there they get wet and don’t do it again trying to thing of any ideas here

 

[xxkenny90xx]

Steve's leds fit nicely in the stock biocube lid...

 

[Tired]

A spray bottle is harmless, but it's not free of distress for the cat. The way they run is evidence enough. It works because they find it very upsetting. And it only works when you're in the room- a smart cat will learn that they can do the forbidden thing whenever you aren't around. Not the best training tactic for anything, since it's aversive and relies on you being around. If you want the cat to not do something only while you're around, just physically move the cat.

A tray of water on top of the tank is a good idea. Also unpleasant for the cat, but less so, and should get the message across. And it's not reliant on you being in the room.

Cats are fussy about textures. Crinkled tinfoil, bristle brushes, that sort of thing. If you could temporarily scatter something all over the eggcrate that he doesn't like, you could remove it once he stops going up there.

Can you offer another option? A nice warm bed nearby in a sunbeam, maybe.

Can you take some pictures? Physically keeping him off might be a good option.

OR. You shouldn't do this, but.
I used to have a 65gal freshwater tank. My cat liked to jump onto the lid and stare through it at the fish. One day he jumped up while I was feeding the fish, and, because the lid was open, he went right into the tank. Clawed his way out along with about five gallons of water, got everything thoroughly wet, and I had to go find him and towel him off. He never jumped up onto the tank again.
(Don't dip your cat in the tank. That's mean.)

 

[mfinn]

I had a cat that decide she wanted to watch my fish from above and I bought a product called a Scat Mat.
It's a pet training aid that works very well.
I heard the commotion from the other room she made when she jumped up and landed on it.
It only took once.