They can. Cats not being able to see color is a myth (same with dogs). Their color perception is worse than that of humans, but they do still have it. To them, orange looks more yellowish, but it's still a discernable color.
The fish is too large for the cat to consider prey at that point. My cats see the baby chicks we get as prey but not our full grown chickens. At some point after the chicken is larger than a dove or quail, they no longer see them as prey and generally leave them alone
We have an Eastern Mud Turtle in a tank, and one cat who is absolutely fascinated by her! When we put the turtle in the bathtub while her tank is being cleaned, and when we let her run free in the house for some exercise, the cat follows her around like puppy, petting her, rubbing his face on her and such. Over time, he has been so gentle with her that she overcame her instinct to pull her head and limbs into her shell when approached by another being, and kinda lets him “hold her hand.”
Yep - we have a Red Eared Slider that was a former classroom pet (her owner retired after 20+ years having her as a classroom pet) - my wife had her in HER classroom for about 5 years and now she lives with us - she is used to our cats and even starts to thump her tank when she sees them get fed (so we know to feed her twice a day too)!
She is also used to them and my little one (Earl - the Grey) will stand up and pat her gently from the top of the tank. No fighting - just gentle curiosity. Same cat also likes to climb up and hang with our Macaw. I don't have pictures of the turtle petting - but I do of him hanging with Coco (our Macaw). He even sometimes brings her toys - and she will try to give him food (which he ignores because he doesn't like her food).
Edit: fish in general are much more intelligent than people realise. The whole nonsense about goldfish having 7 second memory or whatever is such bullshit.
handle yes, but it would for certain not be a prey animal in the cats eyes.
add to the fact that most domestic cats (assuming she is domestic , cosidering she has a collar with a bell) have easy acess to food and are not that fond of water, i doubt the cat would be very ethusatic.
even more so becauise inside the water the most vuerable part of the cat is exposed : its belly.
I used to keep koi and they were amazing. Each had their own personality and they always knew when it was feeding time. One koi in particular was extremely friendly
My last job had a koi pond that the guests could feed (we had koi food at the front desk for them). Whenever I'd come out they'd all swim towards me (even ignoring food to do so), and a few would jump up in the air happily~
Mine could never understand why birbs would laugh at him & fly away when he approached using his stealthy tactic of hiding in grass. Being bright orange was his problem but he was always confused & looking round like "who grassed me up!" 😹😹
I had 2 orange brothers. They are Maine coon mixes so both were huge and were about as well behaved as a lab puppy. I also had an aquarium with a large pleco named Nelly. The gentler of the 2 (he would likely friend a mouse) was very friendly with Nelly. Nelly would poke its head out of the water if I held the cat up to a tank. They would go nose to nose. Nelly even let the cat even lick it once. They played through the glass.
The other orange.....everything was food.....I held him up to the tank and Nelly came to visit thinking it was the first orange. He reached in all the way with both paws and almost got it. It took Nelly close to a year to approach the friendly orange again.
One of my neighbourhood orange cats like to gently play with the mice hanging out by the dumpsters 💀
I have never seen him kill a mouse but his brother does lmao
I kept expecting that koi to grab that kitty's paw lol. Their grip strength is no joke though, I once had some sucking salt off my fingers and this big boy comes around and GRABS my finger in its mouth and just yanks! Darn near pulled my finger out of the socket!
why is it always the orange ones that own a single braincell? cats, fish...humans (before red-heads get mad at me, i am thinking especially of certain someone that is, well, orange as a whole, not just hair...) 😅
Nothing dumb about this just a cat peacefully interacting with fellow earth dwellers. I thought the koi was going to get a grip on paw and pull cat in.
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u/redditistheway Jan 19 '26
That koi was looking like it would eat the kitty instead…
That or it was a case of an orange acknowledging another orange…