Training a Betta

I was reading that Bettas can be trained to jump through a loop. Has anyone ever trained a Betta to do this? If so, what did you use for a loop?

 

Great thread. I've heard about this also. I never did this but I'm definitely subscribing to this.

 

I don't know how to train, but I wouldn't suggest it since it could jump out of it wanted to.

 

They certainly can be trained, but this is something I wouldn't recommend. It can teach them that jumping is good, and they could jump out of the tank and kill themselves. I would never risk this, my fish are too important for me than teaching them tricks.

 

I have a hood on my tank so I guess I wasn't thinking that he would try to jump out otherwise. I would feel horrible if anything happened to him.

 

We accidentally taught our betta to jump. If you want to train him to jump, stick a betta pellet on your damp fingertip and hold it close to but over the water. He will see it and go for it. He follows the finger if you move it. But our betta doesn't jump very high. He doesn't come all the way out of the water. I'm not sure how someone could do the loop trick without half submerging the loop. It would also have to be made of a soft material that would not endanger fins, I imagine. Or be large enough to be out of the way...Hmm...but, I can see it would be possible to get a betta to jump for food through a loop.......

Ok, I searched and there are online how-tos for this. You are supposed to submerge the loop completely so they can swim through it and then gradually raise it up, rewarding with a treat each time they swim through it. A pipe cleaner is recommended for the loop. I might have to try this. I'm not really worried about Mercutio jumping out of his tank, since it has a hood.

 

I semi-trained my first Betta to go through a hoop underwater. I used food. I would put a treat on one side of the hoop and he would go through the hoop to get the food. After a while, he started going through the hoop without the food, not always though but he may have gotten fully trained if I had stuck with training him. I am now sorry I didn't take a video.