Bettas do tricks!

I finally taught one of my fish (Lava) a trick. I dip my fingertip in the water to wet it and stick a food pellet on it. When I hold it over him about an inch above the water he jumps out and grabs it off my finger! He does this every time now. He even jumps when I tried to just drop the pellet and grabbed it from between my fingers!  ;D  He seems to enjoy this and gets as big a kick out of it as I do. Tried teaching Phlox this but so far no luck. He has a very short attention span.

Try it with your Bettas and see how it goes. They'll do almost anything for food! 

 

They will get to doing it with the peas when they figure out that they are "treats" too and they come clear out of the water. Just a word of caution, however, be sure your tank is covered when you teach them to do this as they learn to jump and if they see something they think is "interesting" outside of the tank and you are not there, they will jump out of the tank after it.



The little devils ;D

Rose


We love them anyway though

 

I had a betta 2 years ago that new many tricks.

 

InarI will do the same thing but when he has been on a fast for one reason or another, I have to really be careful, when he sees me he flares up and tries to bite the lid on thank but like Rose said becareful they will get jump sometimes.

~inari

 

Don't worry, I always keep my tanks covered...  Yesterday Phlox made a small attempt to jump for his pellet and then lost his train of thought and swam off looking for trouble.  ;D I think he's still too young and may need more time.  I had to scold him this morning for knocking his snail around the tank like a football because he wanted his algae pellet... :-\

Last night when Lava jumped he missed the pellet and latched onto my finger instead. He hung on for about 1 1/2 seconds and then let go and jumped again and got the pellet. He felt like a piece of velcro stuck to my finger.  He now has started going to the top of the tank when I approach and instead of doing the traditional wiggle dance for food he splashes the surface of the water with his head

I found a website someone made about training fish. He trained his goldfish to play soccer or something and his Betta could jump through a hoop. He proved that fish are more intelligent and more complex than most people had thought. I always knew that!
I know the Bettas that people take to shows are taught to flare on command for the judges to see him.

Stradius011: What kind of tricks did your Betta do and how did you teach them to him?  I'm trying to figure out what to teach him next.

 

I KNOWthat I saw here on the forum somewhere that someone had a betta that played with popsicle sticks but I could not find it. I tried to get my little ones to play with ping-pong balls but they were too big. It needs to be something small that will float but not so small that they can get it into their mouths. and not so dense that it will sink. They like to play and there are feeding hoops that they may learn to jump through but they could get hurt on them so I would not try with mine. There has never been a question to me about bettas being intelligent. Mine respond to music but each has his own preference. Marty likes Rod Stewart but Alexander likes Sarah Brightman. Emma is an Enya fan and when I had Sara she loved strictly instrumental music but turn on a singer and you lost her. My den gets a little hairy at times with the boys either one having their way with the music and believe me there is a big difference in the types. (but everybody likes the Animal Planet until at least noon then mommy gets to watch or at least listen to what she wants to) WHO SAYS I spoil my fish?? ;D

Rose

 

I should try Animal Planet and see if Lava likes it. My sister's dogs go crazy when it's on. Her Jack Russell bounces up and down non-stop until someone turns the channel. I've never heard of an animal who didn't like watching it. It's like it was made for them! Phlox can't see the TV from where he is. I know Lava likes commercials that have lots of big bright colored spots. He comes racing over to watch it everytime. As soon as it's over he goes away. I only listen to music with headphones so I don't know what their preferences are.  ;D

 

I've never seriously thought of having Rusty given daytime TV or anything like that...

 

My Tank sits right next to my computer and one day I was looking up betta pics and one monsterous picture of a male betta poped and InarI got so mad he flared up and even now once in a while when he sees certain colors he will flare up at me. It's entertaining to say the least

~Inari