[basilius]

Hello so i have a situation my Cat is eating my aluminium plants that im growing on a frag shelf holding their stems in the water and their leaves out of the water

Before you ask no it is not a catfish but an actual 4 legged, 1 tail lots of fur cat and the little pr ick is eating all the leaves lol

i want to know if i make a 1 part vinegar 3 part water spray and spray the leaves that will stop the cat but would it affect the tank if any of the spray landed on the water ect....

i have shrimp, crabs, corys, snails, algae eaters and fighters

 

[MCSLABS]

Go and pick some of the long bladed grass outside and place it by thier food. You can also take bird seed, the finer seeds and plant it in a shallow dish. They sprout it a few days, leave by a window for your cat to eat. Cats go for grass when thier stomach is upset, to clear parasites or if they are constipated.

 

[Betta132]

Your crayfish will most likely kill your shrimp and fish as soon as they get the chance.
What type of crabs? Most species sold as freshwater aren't really aquatic freshwater animals and will most likely attack fish and shrimp.
What kind of algae eater? Most grow large and get aggressive or just grow massive.
"Fighters"? As in bettas, plural? Are they all in the same tank?
Your shrimp are under threat from everything listed above.

 

[basilius]

The crabs are spider crabs 2.5 cm across fully grown, found in a colony on the fresh water side of a esturary, bred through several generations to now thrive in freshwater rather than brackish and they are doing awsome btw
they are in there to clean up the dead shrimp and plant matter which they do well

true Siamese algae eaters-its a big tank and they are disposable im not worried

fighters, bettas and yes i did my research and talked to quite a few betta guys, i managed to get a very submissive male with a harem of 4 submissive females, again big tank, heavily planted lots of cover and monitored, and they are lazy, often swimming as a group, i won the lotto for now lol

the shrimp are in there as food/scavengers if they wernt being eaten they arnt doing their job right, again lots of cover ect....

ON TOPIC THO is the situation of my plants being eaten not my shrimp and by a cat not a crab

 

[AquaAurora]

Just be forewarned: A peaceful betta can turn on the community tank its in for no apparently reason at any time. One betta keeper who's has this species of fish for many many maaany years had a male turn and start hunting the other fish in its community tank after a year of being very uninterested in the others. They had to move ti before the betta killed anyone.

On topic I'd go with mcslabs' suggestion or if you don't feel like doing either of those options buy some pre-grown cat grass at the petstore. When I had cats I couldn't keep riparium plants that they could get access to. Covering the shelves/tables where they'd jump up with other items helped deter it.
Not sure how a vinigar spray will effect a tank. Some people use citrus sprays to deter cats, if you could get a truly organic citrus spray perhaps try that? Test it first thought, it kept 2 of mine away, but the 3rd loved citrus =.=

 

[thedood]

Cat: The other white meat

 

[AquaAurora]

Cat: The other white meat

Tastes like catfish!! (probably not)

 

[thedood]

Tastes like catfish!! (probably not)

Deep fried in corn mean with a little hot sauce eh maybe lol.

 

[basilius]

Deep fried in corn mean with a little hot sauce eh maybe lol.

seriously an option, he eats my plants i eat him sounds fair

Bump:

Just be forewarned: A peaceful betta can turn on the community tank its in for no apparently reason at any time. One betta keeper who's has this species of fish for many many maaany years had a male turn and start hunting the other fish in its community tank after a year of being very uninterested in the others. They had to move ti before the betta killed anyone.

Yeah we are keeping an eye on him and the female bettas, we have spare tanks we can use just in case: The main thing is that we have stocked the tank with the bettas in mind, the snails, corys and crabs are armored the Siamese algae eaters are faster, the African butterfly fish is bigger and meaner and the shrimp are disposable

if he turns, the butterfly fish will slap him back into position

 

[thedood]

As for the cat first the plants next your fish. Where does it end?

 

[Zapins]

How about a glass cover for the tank.

 

[AdamTill]

My cats make mincemeat out of any plant they can get a hold of. It has to be out of their reach or anything gets used as a toothpick. My riparium is way out of their reach of I don't think any spray etc would stop them.

 

[basilius]

How about a glass cover for the tank.

the plants grow out of my hood

Bump: i might give up on the riparium dream for now and stick with my underwater forest, at least he did this in the early stages when it was just the aluminium plants and not the sedges and peace lilly i was looking at adding this weekend

 

[sharkbunnie]

You could try Grannick's Bitter Apple spray. You could wipe down the leaves with a cotton ball. I would be careful to not get any in the tank. It may or may not work. Some critters do not care what things taste like, they are just compelled I guess. If you add a peace lily, that may "cure" the problem. They cause oral pain, drooling and vomiting when dogs & cats chew/eat them. There is also a thing called The Pet Corrector. It is kinda like one of those disposable air horn things but instead of a horn sound it is a REALLY loud hiss. When you cat gets up to where it can chew the leaves you "blast" it with the hiss, scaring it off. If you let the cat or dog see the corrector every time before you use it, often the sight of it is all that is needed. This has worked pretty well training my 2 cats to stay off the kitchen counters (at least when I'm home). It's not an immediate fix but if you stick with it, it will solve the problem.

 

[randym]

I would give the cat his own plants to chew. They sell trays of cat grass, cat nip, etc. at pet and garden stores.

Put them some place convenient for him (his favorite sunny windowsill? near his bed?) and hopefully he'll prefer them to your tank.

 

[randym]

Also...tell us more about your spider crabs. Do you know the species name? Are they Amarinus lacustris?

Crabs that breed in freshwater sound very cool.

 

[basilius]

Amarinus Laevis as far we know, to me a crab looks like a crab lol a mate of mine found them on the fresh water side of a local estuary in geelong australia, from what he told me there was quite a few of them, he grabbed a dozen or so and put them in a small tub pond with very very slight brackish water and then changed the brackish water out to fresh water over time, they now breed and behave just fine, i put 3 females in my community tank as a clean up crew, we have found tho that the males should only be added for breeding purposes as they tend to be super aggressive where the females are really laid back, if you can catch them in the open areas of the tank and be gentle they will crawl onto your hand but good luck hehe

To test the clean up capability of our tank:
Recently had my super old female beta pass on, we kept her in the 20L to live out her life -(My first and oldest fish) as we thought it would be best instead of putting the stress of a new tank onto her.
We put her dead body into our big tank at the front where there is a clear spot and we noticed a few things
The Crabs came in first and removed a lot of the bigger parts of flesh, within 2hrs most had been eaten
the shrimp closed in once the crabs had left they stayed for a while but were constantly startled by the corys-the shrimp ate most of what was left
the corys had a little peck but at most were disinterested
later that night all 4 apple snails were in that area and did not leave for several hours
the skeleton disappeared

during this time and before we added her body we did water tests every hour and surprisingly there was no increase which means the fish was eaten in a timely matter and that the amount and type of plants we have was enough to absorb the ammonia and other chemicals

been experimenting with creating a as complete as possible food cycle with the butterfly fish as the alpha predator the fighters as sub predators and the cherry & glass shrimp, siamese algae eaters, corys, crabs and snails as the clean up crew

we have found to that by regular feeding of live crickets and other pet grade insects that the butterfly fish is content not eating the fighters (for now)
that with regular flakes and blood worms shrimp loss has been minimal
that crabs like kicking fish in the face, seriously it hangs upside down from a leaf and waits till a fish gets close then it kicks a leg out and scares the crap out of the fish

the other good thing with the butterfly fish means that i can have a larger and more varied stocking of insects for my tarantula with out having to worry about the insects spoiling as the tarantula eats twice a week