Cats love watching fish almost as much as they love eating them, but felines and their aquatic counterparts are infamously difficult to keep as pets in the same house.
People who own standard aquariums inevitably learn they tend to double as unintentional treat cabinets for determined kitties who find ways to get at nature’s snacks inside. Some opt for supposedly more secure aquarium covers and resort to the usual tricks — double-sided tape, scent deterrents, foil — to keep their furry friends from climbing up to help themselves to treats.
Others take the easy route, pulling up hours-long Youtube videos of fish tanks for their cats’ amusement.
But one cat has the ultimate set-up, cat TV at its finest: A custom-built aquarium that provides him with a 360-degree view of the action from within the tank.
The cat’s name is Jasper, and his human, Melissa Krieger, bought the cat-approved tank from a Cincinatti shop that designs and builds custom aquariums.
There’s a cat-size shelf directly beneath the tank, and an observation blister built into the bottom of the tank itself, big enough for Jasper to poke his head up and get the closest view possible short of diving into the tank. Melissa even put a cat bed on the shelf so her furry overlord can watch the fish in comfort.
As you can see, the little guy loves it.
Pain In The Bud 
Not all cats love watching fish.
When I was a teenager, my brother got a fish tank and filled it with three or four fish. I thought this would excite our cat no end. But she looked at it a grand total of twice.
This I could not understand. I would hold her up to the tank – ‘Look Kitty, see the fish?’ In reply, she would yawn and then squirm to be put down, so she could chase dust or plan the location of her next nap.
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Sounds like a cat alright – never predictable!
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We had the same “Yawning” feline! But now we have a busy 2 year old who goes after te”red dot” and is cats th chase reflections. We don’t think a fish tank is the best idea and I bet that custom one is more than we could afford but it is SO COOL!
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Maybe she was disappointed that you didn’t get a bird feeder and a nice comfy ledge spot. 🙂
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Oh wow this is great! If I were rich, I’d get that for Holly.
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Some of the other aquariums built by the same shop (link in story) def run into the many thousands of dollars. I like the ones that are like room dividers and built into the structure.
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The cat loves it but the fish are probably in a constant state of ptsd 🙂
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Jasper’s human wrote something about that on Instagram or Facebook IIRC saying the fish don’t even pay attention to him. I wonder if fish naturally recognize cats as predators, since the sight of cats in water is rare. Larger fish in the Amazon probably do because jaguars don’t give AF and will literally jump right in and drag crocodiles out like it’s nothing.
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That is a really neat solution to the problem.
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It even has space for his toys right beneath the shelf…in one of the photos you can see a track toy with a ball cats are supposed to paw around.
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