Newbie and wondering about discus and cats

[dwwjr56]

Hello,
I am thinking about setting up a Discus tank and before I do that I wanted to ask if it would be too much stress on the fish if I have 4 cats, (the four legged variety). I don't want to start something up and have the fish die due to too much stress from the cats always pawing at the tank. I will be setting up a 90 gallon tank and I will have plants also.

I will do all the required reading here on setting up the tank, but I would just like an answer regarding the cats. I did a search and of course I came up with pages, but they were about catfish and not 4 legged variety.

Thank you for any help!

[dwilder]

discus get used to about anything as far as movement around the tank.some people like to baby them but imo the more movement around them the more they get used to it and they dont hide and get stressed out all the time

[ILLUSN]

keep lids on the tank and they'll be fine.

[Barry N]

I have 1 tank in a room with little 'people trafic' at all - planted etc with Juvies - they are a bit skitty when you walk in the room

Main display tank in the living room - big tank, lots of plants and wood, adult fish - they are happy and only carry on when spawning. The dogs put their paws onto this tank and the 1st one and the discus run

Bare bottom with heaps of 'people traffic' in a hallway - small juvies in here - well, the dogs put the paws on this tank to see whats happening and these guys think its feeding time - I think they love the dogs more than me! :lol:

More people and animlas going past the better I think. What they don't like is cats jumping on the top of the tank and friends kids tapping the glass going "Ooohh look at the pretty fish" - at this stage I cut the kids hands off :lol: :lol:

[dwwjr56]

Thank you for all the replies. There will be traffic in the area but very little. The tank will be in my cellar, it will be covered, but I am not sure the cats will stay off the top of the tank. In fact I doubt they will. As far as kids...well none of those around. Hopefully they will do fine with the activity of the cats. I will have to really think about it, as I dont want to have discus and have them be stressed out 24x7.

Any other comments welcome.