# Cat + Betta = ...Friends?!



## KlutzyGal (Mar 31, 2014)

So along with my now 3 bettas, I also own 3 cats and 2 dogs. When I first brought Loki home back in February, I had his bowl sitting right next to me on my computer desk, which I'm frequently at. It took a day or so, but eventually my cat Shylah noticed that there was a newcomer in the house. One day she hopped up into my computer chair, then promptly decided to hop up onto the desk and investigate. I watched closely, sure she was going to stick her paw in before too long to try and swipe him out. Nope! She just sat there and stared. Eventually Loki noticed her too, and would swim up to the side of his bowl and stare back. Shylah would lay down back in the little cubby behind my mousepad and watch him for well over an hour at a time. Other than occasionally sticking her paw up on the side of the bowl when he'd swim around by her, she has never tried to smack him or do any other harm to him. For a while, every morning when I'd wake up and open my bedroom door, she'd be sitting outside, waiting to come in and visit her little friend. Of course, I had to take pictures! This is back when Loki was still relatively new to me, and I hadn't yet upgraded him to his bigger home...


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## ChibiShishou (Dec 9, 2011)

KlutzyGal said:


> So along with my now 3 bettas, I also own 3 cats and 2 dogs. When I first brought Loki home back in February, I had his bowl sitting right next to me on my computer desk, which I'm frequently at. It took a day or so, but eventually my cat Shylah noticed that there was a newcomer in the house. One day she hopped up into my computer chair, then promptly decided to hop up onto the desk and investigate. I watched closely, sure she was going to stick her paw in before too long to try and swipe him out. Nope! She just sat there and stared. Eventually Loki noticed her too, and would swim up to the side of his bowl and stare back. Shylah would lay down back in the little cubby behind my mousepad and watch him for well over an hour at a time. Other than occasionally sticking her paw up on the side of the bowl when he'd swim around by her, she has never tried to smack him or do any other harm to him. For a while, every morning when I'd wake up and open my bedroom door, she'd be sitting outside, waiting to come in and visit her little friend. Of course, I had to take pictures! This is back when Loki was still relatively new to me, and I hadn't yet upgraded him to his bigger home...



Cat+ Betta can equal friend!!
Carefully XD. We have a cat named Sneakers (long story) and she is in LOVE with fish, preferably eating them!!
My moms first betta, well, she'd never had one before and we came home to find the poor little guy in the mouth of Sneakers. He survived his encounter with the frisky feline and after that we provided supervised visits only.

Now Sneaks is a more fish-appropriate kitten and only gets into trouble every now and then. She has taken a liking to my female betta Cedric (my mother again long story) and the two greet each other nose to nose.

Have you had any luck cat proofing your tanks? Or is Shylah still a nice visiting not sticking the paws in cat?:-D


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## KlutzyGal (Mar 31, 2014)

She has actually behaved well the entire time! The only "problem" I have is she'll sometimes get too lazy/preoccupied with the fish to go drink the water from the cat bowls in the other room, and will instead drink the water from the tank. :roll: I'll move my computer chair far enough away from my desk on days when I'm gone a while so she can't get up there and drink the water (Shylah's a small fry and has trouble jumping very high), but that's about as much cat-proofing I've needed to do.


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## Polkadot (Feb 10, 2013)

What a great pic!


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## BettaLover1313 (Apr 15, 2013)

Cat+Fish can equal friends as others have stated. My own cat, Renji, actually likes looking at my betta, and he was great friends with my DSPK, Dragoon.


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