0morrokh

Sorry I haven't been on much. The end of the trimester is in 2 weeks and the teachers are all going into a bit of a panic.

Anyway, for the past couple days I've been working on my betta training experiment. I'm impressed with how quickly she's learned, even after the number of animals I've worked with...she's a much better learner than a lot of what we would tend to think of as more intelligent animals. I've taught her to 'target'-I made a target out of one of those wood chopsticks you get at Chinese restaurants, and tied some string around one of the ends. She has to touch the end of the chopstick, under the string, to get food. Now we're working on swimming through a hoop (which is a hair binder tied on a string) to the target. I actually didn't get to work with her today as I was busy all day, but tomorrow or the next day I want to see if I can get her swimming through the hoop without the target.

I'll try to get some pics or vids of her so you guys can see how she's doing.

And no she still isn't named. I've gotten a few ideas but none of them have 'clicked.'

MissMTS

That is so interesting! I didn't know that bettas could be trained.

COBettaCouple

They're capable of learning quite a lot of tricks. Very intelligent fish. Good job on training your new girl, Omorrokh!

capekate

Hi Omorrokh.
I think that is fantastic! Please... send youtube video when you can, Id love it see it.. as Im sure everyone else would too!

Now... can you come and teach my ahhh.. not so bright males that the food is above their noses? hehehe.... my females are much more smarter than the guys! lol...

~ kate

luna

chickadee

I think that is so neat! I would love to do something like that. I think that if I get another betta I have decided that I want to try to get another female like Misty was but very young like the ones I have seen lately on the forum. Of course it will depend if I can find one at Miami Aquariums or online.

Rose

0morrokh

Yeah I might need to set up a youtube account just for this. Goldies definately have way more than a 3 second memory. There's a lot of fish that are extremely intelligent. I suppose it's hard to realize just how smart they are due to how different fish are from us.

You know, I bet you could train any of your bettas tricks, even if they're older. They have a good relationship with you which I think is one of the biggest factors in how well an animal works with you. As long as they'll hand feed it's really easy to teach them to do something to get food...you can start with having them touch your finger for food (which they'll probably do anyway when you stick your finger in the tank). If you can teach a fish to swim to a target then you can get them to do almost anything.

So anyway, I had her swimming through my hair binder hoop as well as jumping out of the water (wasn't going to do that originally, but she gets bored just swimming back and forth. The tank is well sealed so no worries of her jumping out.) My trouble now is getting her to swim through it without the target. It was really funny, she'd be swimming practically in circles around the hoop but wouldn't go through until she saw the target on the other side. Whatever, we're still working on it. This was only like her 4th day of training so no need to rush her.

Tomorrow I think I'll try to incorporate other obstacles to go into/through so she doesn't get bored. Not sure yet what exactly they'll be.

EDIT: still trying to decide her name but I did think of 'chispa' which means spark. I think it suits her but waiting to see if I think of anything else.

COBettaCouple

It's amazing how they learn things. Our Bettas learned to recognize certain things that we would do in the morning before feeding them. Every one of them would be dancing up a storm and Angel would be doing her 'feed me' routine way before the food came out. They've learned other things, even without training and I think you show how some training can really go far with them.

Allie

Call her Peppermint Patty...she look like a candy cane...or call her Candy?

Narcicius

Wow I can't wait to see some videos of this one, I love bettas and now they even cooler now.

Narcicius

BTW Omorrokh what is on your avatar?

Blub

aprilrain85

How did you get them to start feeding from your hand? I would love to train Geppetto! Right now he watches me put his pellets in, but only eats once they are all there and my hand is away from his tank. Any suggestions?

chickadee

Place your hand flat on the front of his tank and talk to him softly and when he gets used to the sound of your voice and begins to come to the front of the tank and listen to you, you will know that he is getting used to you. Then little by little at meal times talk to him when you put the food into the tank. Then after a while leave the lid open when you feed him and he will get used to it. Then put your finger in the water with the pellet and just do not move that finger for anything until he has eaten that pellet. If you move it, the whole thing is over as it will scare him. Then little by little put the finger in first and then the food with the other hand. Soon he will get to know that the finger means food is coming and soon he will come around the finger for food especially if you start to drop the food close to the finger. But do not move your finger until he starts to come up to the finger to eat. Then you can start to put a small piece of food on your fingertip and see if he will eat off of the fingertip. But it takes time and patience with a timid little betta like Geppetto. It is very worth it though. And think of all the quality time you will have with him while you are training him. Just do not get discouraged. It really does not take that long if you are patient.

Rose

COBettaCouple

Yea, Rose is right. It's all kind of a gradual thing. Our little Sweetie was all tore up and missing fins with deep stress lines and no color when we got her. She'd dart into hiding if you got close. Bit by bit she learned we were safe and we did like Rose advises. Now she's our most active little one with a beautiful rainbow metallic color who's always swimming back & forth at the front of her tank, trying to get attention and she happily plays 'follow the finger' and 'nip the finger'.

Narcicius

I can't wait to get a betta tank setup. It just sounds so rewarding to the owner.I can't wait.

aprilrain85

Thanks for the suggestions. He always comes over to say hi when I sit down by him or talk to him. This morning I managed to get him to eat one pellet at a time while my hand was over the tank. You are right - I just need more patience. However, Geppetto is pretty.... timid.... he has an amino shirmp tank mate. I have been afraid that the shrimp would get eaten; however any time Geppetto goes near the shrimp and flares, the shrimp just advances towards Geppetto. As soon as this happens, Geppetto flees. 99% of the time, Geppetto leaves the shrimp alone. Anyway, thanks again for the suggestions.

COBettaCouple

Aww.. he sounds like Teddy Bear. He started out real timid, even though he's the biggest Betta we've seen. Your little guy will lose that in time, attention from you and getting comfortable in his home will build his confidence.