Training Your Puffer?

[eustoma01]

Has anyone attempted to train their fish? I have watched some puffers on youtube who enjoy getting pet or do tricks. I know a dwarf puffer is tiny compared to the ones on youtube but I think it should be possible to train them as well.

I hope to be able to feed my puffer with my hand and have it enjoy my company, and also to be able to do tricks. This is the only way I can think of to keep it mentally stimulated since it doesn't really have to worry about anything else I feel a bit cruel just leaving it in the tank with nothing to do.

However, I have no real idea how to do any of this... does anyone have experience with this? It has been about a month since I've had my puffer and it recognizes me and always swims to the glass when I come home from work. I try to get it used to my finger but it always looks on edge when I have my finger in the tank and if I try to touch it it slowly backs away (lol)

I did feed it with my hand once and also once with my hand in the tank sort of covering the puffer while it ate but it seemed kind of wary of my hand. I'm thinking of trying to have it do something simple like follow my finger or come to my finger when I put it on the tank. I know if I want to reinforce a behavior I should feed it right away after it has done something I want it to do, but aside from that I don't know how to make it do anything. I've tried moving my finger to make it follow but it doesn't care. If I put my finger up to the glass it sort of backs away from it. Do I just keep doing this every day until it gets used to my finger before attempting anything else? I feel like my attempts have even scared it off from me lol.

The only time it does anything is if there is food haha. I tried making it get some exercise by putting a snail shell in the water and moving it with my tweezers. It followed the shell for a while til I took it out because I felt like I was being mean.

 

[Crazycoryfishlady]

Maybe it would follow something more meaty than a finger? A slice of seafood being drug along the tip of the tank? I know the idea isn't that you want it thinking your finger is food, but if it's chasing food it might get the idea that more food comes with the following of items in the tank

Try to get it's attention with say a shrimp, and then switch for your finger, when it gets close try to switch for the shrimp or drop a tiny piece for a treat

Could be human grade shrimp or mysis shrimp.

I use tweezers to feed some of my fish, smaller than a finger and a bit harder to see, easier to control.
Makes it so they're interested in foods that normally sink past them without noticing.

If it followed the shell, try doing it with a live one.
Put it with the tweezers make it go to one point in the tank, let it bite it.
Move it to the opposite side, if it follows right away it gets a reward, if it hesitates, bring it back to the puffer for a short bit, and move it to a different corner or point in the tank.

You may want to slowly work your hands in using the tweezers.
Start with hands above the water, then slowly move them down to where you're almost pinching the shell with your fingers not the tweezers.

You've pretty much got the idea, reward for good behavior, but stability in practice is also important..
teaching a dog to sit once a week won't have it trained in two.
Do a lot of the same exercises in the same corners, maybe set up a certain spot that is a circle of tubing above one corner, and have that be the "spin corncer"
Get the puff to either go all the way around the circle in a loop, or put the tweezers in the middle and see if you can get the puff to do a little spin
So it might get used to an obstacle course, or perhaps start spinning or going back and forth to corners expecting treats.