# Fish Training: Has anyone tried?



## Sargasso (Apr 21, 2010)

I've been reading some COOL articles about training fish.

I think that "Big Blue", one of our more crafty/hungry African cichlids would be receptive to classical conditioning. One method is clicker training, using a light as a reinforcement. You basically teach the fish that the light (conditioned stimulus) means food (unconditioned stimulus), so that it's easier for the fish to realize which behavior earned the reward (light comes on, that means there's going to be food, I did the right thing).

I also found this kit, funny stuff!

http://r2fishschool.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=2


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## jkam (Apr 21, 2010)

jackie chan has


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## rescuepenguin (Apr 21, 2010)

I put food into the same spot in all my aquariums every feeding. Virtually all species come to that spot when they are hungry. This includes the shrimp


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## Chappy (Apr 21, 2010)

I trained my loaches and botias to do the dolphin dance on command without the use of food


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic (Apr 22, 2010)

My friend Mark, when he was working on his Master's thesis, trained salmon smolts to hit a little handle that would drop food into their tank. Not really useful in a full-scale aquaculture operation, but an interesting project.


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## GreenGanja (Apr 27, 2010)

Embersmom said:


> I trained my loaches and botias to do the dolphin dance on command without the use of food


Post a Video would love to see that

-Mike


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## Sargasso (Apr 21, 2010)




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## Adz1 (Apr 21, 2010)

Embersmom said:


> I trained my loaches and botias to do the dolphin dance on command without the use of food


i would love to see this.....lol


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## Chappy (Apr 21, 2010)

Bill's got them all now, but they were doing it for him when I dropped them off. He couldn't believe it!


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## Sargasso (Apr 21, 2010)

That Jackie Chan video cracked me up!

In university, I once trained rats to gamble and wrote a psychology paper about it! Well, I guess I didn't train them to gamble, I trained them to push a lever for a drop of sugar water and played with the reinforement schedule, and they did the gambling themselves!

Basically, you plunk a lab rat in a test cage and teach it to use the lever. I could manipulate the number of pumps required with the program I was using. Basically, the rats would get 30-40 drops per half hour if they had to push the lever once per drop. If they had to push it twice, they'd get 25-30 drops by pushing the lever 50-60 times. They tend to get bored/tired faster the harder they have to work. At 5 pushes, they would only take 10 drinks, they seemed to think that their time would be better spent scratching themselves or sitting in the corner. Here's where it gets funny though, when they're on a variable interval schedule (1 push/5pushes/10 pushes/2 pushes/1 push /1 push/ 20 pushes) they just sit there pumping the whole time!

Needless to say, I think about those rats every time I walk into a casino, and I can't bear to gamble with more than a buck or so!


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## April (Apr 21, 2010)

i havE THAT FISH SCHOOL SET. if anyone wants to play with it..free to anyone who will try it and take a video or report their results back. lol. someone gave it to me.


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## Sargasso (Apr 21, 2010)

YES!!!

April, I'd love to do that, I'll make a video for sure! 



aprils aquarium said:


> i havE THAT FISH SCHOOL SET. if anyone wants to play with it..free to anyone who will try it and take a video or report their results back. lol. someone gave it to me.


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## April (Apr 21, 2010)

come and get it. its collecting dust. i was gonna post it on here for someone to play with.


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## gwcana (Apr 22, 2010)

lol I can't wait to see your video


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