Dog/goldfish Trainer

Just stopping by to say my hellos.

I have a 300l (80 gallon) glass aquarium with a canister pump and HOB filter, air stones etc etc.

I have two comets, two fantails, and 10 zebra danios.

I am a dog trainer, whilst undergoing a professional certification I trained a comet to prove cross-species technical skill.

It was after researching the best environments to train (no enrichment, no substrate, no light/interaction/no plants to munch on prior to training) that I became passionate about insisting I train my goldfish in a pleasant environment, and just take longer doing so.

So hello! And I hope to meet other goldfish enthusiasts on this forum. Particularly any who are interested in behaviour/behaviour modification/trick training!

Thanks!

 

HI and welcome to fishlore!

I taught a few of my goldfish to swim through a hoop. I have the R2 fish training school but I used it for my betta, the equipment is a little small for goldfish. All my goldfish are currently in ponds since it's summer so I'm not doing any training at the minute.

 

Thank you for your response!

I used the same kit, the food delivery/targeting stick is just so easy to use and so hard to replicate.

Such a shame that they ended up going out of business (I heard most of the stock is just clearance).

Did you train in individual tanks or sort of "select" one fish out of all of them to train?

 

What tricks do you teach your goldfish? That sounds very interesting!

Know of any tricks to stop goldfish redecorating your aquascape? Lol

 

Hello and welcome to fishlore, glad you are here!

 

Haha! I'm not sure there's any way to get Goldfish to stop messing with an aquascape, I wish

Simplifying training there is:

- Positively Reinforced Alternate Behaviour.
- Management (prevention) of undesirable behaviour.

It is incredible difficult to postively reinforce alternate behaviours with goldfish as they operate in a 4d environment and move so much (as we all know haha).

On the management side:

One of the big things I always speak with dog training clients about is introducing a sandpit for a dog that digs.

In my tank I have a few glass cups filled with different interesting subsrates (quartz/sand etc). You can bury food pellets to encourage the use of these areas for natural foraging behaviours in goldfish. But by can, I mean hope haha.

___

My fish is trained to follow a lure using a marker/clicker. Once trained on that they have learnt:

- Hoop
- Tunnel
- Weave
- Nudge Object (haven't got to move along yet)
- Follow Lure
- Jump
- Hand feed
- Hand feed (Jump)
- Swim into net (voluntarily)
- Swim into cup (voluntarily).

I cannot emphasize enough how useful training to follow a lure can be for any aquarium.

When I want to do a water change I just use my lure (or use no lure for the more experienced fish) to encourage fish into the cup/Tupperware I present. Much less opportunity for fin damage with a net etc.

 

Hello and welcome to fishlore, glad you are here!

Thank you for the welcome!

 

Hello Lola and welcome. Read about goldfish training when Sara and Maybelle first came home seven months ago. They are probably old enough now to start training. I mean me training them. They've been successfully training me since the get-go.

Can you recommend a food stick from Amazon or easily home-made? How about a clicker or other stimulus to associate with food?

 

Hello there!

I love goldfish! I don't have any at the moment because I had 2 in a 30 gallon but I lost both. I know it was too small but they were both less than an inch long and I wanted to get a 50g. The one was a black telescope and the other was an orange fan tail. They both knew a few tricks including eating out of my hand, and swimming through a hoop.

The telescope I lost because he was rescued from a bad pet store. He had a very bad eye injury and one day it just opened again I guess and went fuzzy and he was dead The next day. I had him for about 5 months before that. And I taught him to swim into a cup because I would regularly check his eyes and he needed to be close to me to do that. The other I lost from dropsy I think. He just floated to the bottom and died. But he knew a cool trick that involved a toy bucket!

I would put a pellet in the bucket and float it on the water and he would knock it over and get the pellet. I would also sink the bucket with a pellet in it and he would knock it over and get the pellet out!

I loved them both and I hope to either get a 50 gallon or a 75 gallon and get 2 or 3 again. I want a black Moore or a telescope for sure. And I'm not sure what the others will be.

 

I am not sure why that posted twice

 

Thank you for your response!

I used the same kit, the food delivery/targeting stick is just so easy to use and so hard to replicate.

Such a shame that they ended up going out of business (I heard most of the stock is just clearance).

Did you train in individual tanks or sort of "select" one fish out of all of them to train?

I usually use a 1ml syringe with frozen bloodworms in to lure fish. They learn to follow it pretty quickly.

With goldfish I only train new ones in quarintine, ones I've brought in for breeding, fancies that are brought in for winter and young fry I'm growing out. It's too tricky in a pond.

I did a lot of training one year when breeding. The goldfish were quite young. I had about 8 goldfish across 2 or 3 shallow 20 gallon storage tubs. I would hand feed them in their main tanks. I picked out 2 or 3 that were the friendliest and each night I would put them in a 10 gallon to train them. It was a lot easier without any other fish with them.

When training my betta I left him in his main tank. He lived in a 5 gallon with shrimp and snails. I taught him to weave through the poles, push a floating ball, hand feed, swim through a hoop and through a tunnel. He loved it. He learnt very quickly and would perform the tricks as soon as the equipment went in the tank. He would chase the food syringe which meant I could get him to go anywhere in the tank. I was able to lure him into a net or cup easily but never taught it as a trick since he never needed to be removed from his tank.

 

What tricks do you teach your goldfish? That sounds very interesting!

Know of any tricks to stop goldfish redecorating your aquascape?
Lol

(

Hello Lola and welcome. Read about goldfish training when Sara and Maybelle first came home seven months ago. They are probably old enough now to start training. I mean me training them. They've been successfully training me since the get-go.

Can you recommend a food stick from Amazon or easily home-made? How about a clicker or other stimulus to associate with food?

You are never too young to train! I learnt this the hard way by using a juvenile comet for my assignment. Not unlike a puppy, they just simply lack the requisite focus but that can be dealt with.

Even better, if you start young you create what is termed in the industry an "operant animal". That is to say, an animal that understands it must perform some trick/task/behaviour in order to be rewarded.

As above the best is definitely the one out of the "R2 Fish School" kit.

I literally bought the entire kit just for the lure due to the fact that equivalent products online are around the same price range and do not include other apparatus such as tunnels/basketballs/nets etc.

Although I may not have been able to use all of the included equipment so far, I just today used the tiny (ball retrieving) net to clean out some plant debris.

In terms of markers - I have heard that fish can hear noises outside or their tank. I would suggest this might be difficult to differentiate from regular "house noises".

It has been proven that they can understand/see light. So I use a small torch which I shine at the gravel (never the eyes) at the "click" moment one would normally use in animal training. This will always be followed with food reinforcement.

 

I usually use a 1ml syringe with frozen bloodworms in to lure fish. They learn to follow it pretty quickly.

With goldfish I only train new ones in quarintine, ones I've brought in for breeding, fancies that are brought in for winter and young fry I'm growing out. It's too tricky in a pond.

I did a lot of training one year when breeding. The goldfish were quite young. I had about 8 goldfish across 2 or 3 shallow 20 gallon storage tubs. I would hand feed them in their main tanks. I picked out 2 or 3 that were the friendliest and each night I would put them in a 10 gallon to train them. It was a lot easier without any other fish with them.

When training my betta I left him in his main tank. He lived in a 5 gallon with shrimp and snails. I taught him to weave through the poles, push a floating ball, hand feed, swim through a hoop and through a tunnel. He loved it. He learnt very quickly and would perform the tricks as soon as the equipment went in the tank. He would chase the food syringe which meant I could get him to go anywhere in the tank. I was able to lure him into a net or cup easily but never taught it as a trick since he never needed to be removed from his tank.

Amazing!

I am so inspired to hear from experienced fish keepers that they are training at a level far beyond where I am at rn.

In your expierence, do you think you have gotten better (Betta haha) results from your Bettas than your goldfish?

 

Amazing!

I am so inspired to hear from experienced fish keepers that they are training at a level far beyond where I am at rn.

In your expierence, do you think you have gotten better (Betta haha) results from your Bettas than your goldfish?

In my experience bettas are definitely easier to train. Maybe because they are alone they get bored and are more interested? I don't know. They are easier to keep in general imo. Mine remembered tricks for a very long time after teaching him. I would teach a trick and then not practise it for a month or so because I'd lost the hoop or whatever and when it went in the tank he would do it straight away! He always suprised me. So clever.

 

Hello there!

I love goldfish! I don't have any at the moment because I had 2 in a 30 gallon but I lost both. I know it was too small but they were both less than an inch long and I wanted to get a 50g. The one was a black telescope and the other was an orange fan tail. They both knew a few tricks including eating out of my hand, and swimming through a hoop.

The telescope I lost because he was rescued from a bad pet store. He had a very bad eye injury and one day it just opened again I guess and went fuzzy and he was dead The next day. I had him for about 5 months before that. And I taught him to swim into a cup because I would regularly check his eyes and he needed to be close to me to do that. The other I lost from dropsy I think. He just floated to the bottom and died. But he knew a cool trick that involved a toy bucket!

I would put a pellet in the bucket and float it on the water and he would knock it over and get the pellet. I would also sink the bucket with a pellet in it and he would knock it over and get the pellet out!

I loved them both and I hope to either get a 50 gallon or a 75 gallon and get 2 or 3 again. I want a black Moore or a telescope for sure. And I'm not sure what the others will be.

I love hearing about the "cooperative care" you were practising to check on those eyes. It truly marks a respect and bond when an animal allows that!

Even more so I love that you have your own version of "the bucket game". Gorgeous.

All my best, I completely empathise with losing fish.

If you want to train to lure, I would recommend one at a time if possible.

All the best

 

Haha! I'm not sure there's any way to get Goldfish to stop messing with an aquascape, I wish

Simplifying training there is:

- Positively Reinforced Alternate Behaviour.
- Management (prevention) of undesirable behaviour.

It is incredible difficult to postively reinforce alternate behaviours with goldfish as they operate in a 4d environment and move so much (as we all know haha).

On the management side:

One of the big things I always speak with dog training clients about is introducing a sandpit for a dog that digs.

In my tank I have a few glass cups filled with different interesting subsrates (quartz/sand etc). You can bury food pellets to encourage the use of these areas for natural foraging behaviours in goldfish. But by can, I mean hope haha.

___

My fish is trained to follow a lure using a marker/clicker. Once trained on that they have learnt:

- Hoop
- Tunnel
- Weave
- Nudge Object (haven't got to move along yet)
- Follow Lure
- Jump
- Hand feed
- Hand feed (Jump)
- Swim into net (voluntarily)
- Swim into cup (voluntarily).

I cannot emphasize enough how useful training to follow a lure can be for any aquarium.

When I want to do a water change I just use my lure (or use no lure for the more experienced fish) to encourage fish into the cup/Tupperware I present. Much less opportunity for fin damage with a net etc.

That's quite a list! My goldfish will feed form my hand and follow my hand. That's about it lol

Do you find that there are certain goldfish species that are smarter than others? I've always found my Orandas and Moors to be especially engaging so it does make me wonder

 

Just stopping by to say my hellos.

I have a 300l (80 gallon) glass aquarium with a canister pump and HOB filter, air stones etc etc.

I have two comets, two fantails, and 10 zebra danios.

I am a dog trainer, whilst undergoing a professional certification I trained a comet to prove cross-species technical skill.

It was after researching the best environments to train (no enrichment, no substrate, no light/interaction/no plants to munch on prior to training) that I became passionate about insisting I train my goldfish in a pleasant environment, and just take longer doing so.

So hello! And I hope to meet other goldfish enthusiasts on this forum. Particularly any who are interested in behaviour/behaviour modification/trick training!

Thanks![/QUOTE

Welcome to Fishlore!
First of all, hello!
I always get onto new people, sorry about this.. but...
You cannot have comets with fantails. Fantails are fancy fish and comets are not fancy goldfish.
I trained my goldfish to go into a hoop, and here's how to make the hoop:
Get a fish net, you know, with the stick hand holder thing on it.
Cut out the net
There you have it! I taught my goldfish to go into it. I hope this helps you! (even though this was yesterday you asked this question)

 

Welcome. Can you train shrimp? I’ve trained so many animals but I need my shrimp to leave my siphon alone when cleaning. Lol

 

Who, me? I can't train shrimp, that's for sure.
I train chickens, ducks, fish, and horses.

 

Well, "fish", meaning goldfish.

 

Welcome