da fish is a betta

Well, meet da fish. Actually this isn't the original fish this is da fish #2. Da fish #1 passed into fish heaven the middle of 1999. I miss that fish. Fish #1 was a mostly blue betta and he was "clicker trained." Well, actually I didn't use a clicker I used a small flashlight as my secondary reinforcer. Fish #1 would swim through a hoop when presented with the opportunity. I was very proud of him. I have this feat on video, but for the life of me I don't know how to put that video on this web site. Sooo, I guess you'll just have to take my word for it.

I miss my fish and hope to have a new one soon. To train the fish here are the steps I will use.

I will condition the fish using flash/food for about 2 weeks before I try to associate it with a behavior. Why 2 weeks you ask? I have no idea! It just seems like a good number and it worked for fish #1. Since I feed the fish twice a day 2 weeks gives me 14 repetitions. The next step will be to lower the hoop in the water and wait for any indication of looking toward the hoop. Then I will reinforce for movement towards hoop until I get a swim through. Fish #1 didn't live long enough for me to get the behavior on command or to teach a second behavior. I want to teach fish #2 to retrieve but I haven't found a teeny tiny dumbbell yet! NO, I don't expect the fish to pick-up the dumbbell, just to push it across the top of the tank.

I will add pictures as soon as I have a behavior to show.