Now I've gone and done it...

[evilhorde]

I thought it would be fun to teach my betta sorority to perform a trick when I fed them. I don't know how to train fish so I knew it had to be an easy one that the fish could quickly tackle. I decided to teach them to leap out of the water when I move my hand in a circular motion. One of them figured it out quite quickly. And it was fun. But now she is getting too good. This morning she travelled pretty close to 3" up and out of the water for a distance 6". Fairly spectacular to watch. A little scary too. Unfortunately she no longer waits for the cue. If I lean over the tank for any reason, it's showtime. And now all the other girls are catching on. The pro jumps and half of the others start leaping about.

This is an open top tank (29g)with a lot of emersed plants growing out of it and then up a trellis in my window.

What a disaster. How do I go about untraining a fish?

Feel free to snicker if you must.

[MCHRKiller]

Best way to untrain them in this case would be to install a glass canopy, a quick bang to the head would do the trick :hmm3grin2orange:

[dmagerl]

You too can train your fish! Just buy the fish training kit for $28.99 and say goodbye to boring aquariums. Teach your fish to fetch the paper. Or your slippers!

http://www.super-science-fair-projects.com/fish-science-fair-projects.html

[PhillipOrigami]

Strange ad? Spam? No one knows, but Goldfish and oscars are not necessarily 1-6" fish.... lol:hmm3grin2orange:
I feel sorry my friend... Agreed with MCHRkiller.

[evilhorde]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfcz_sMGwYU
more trained fish.

[Cyberra]

*chuckle* I would agree with the putting a canopy on that tank

[ScottishFish]

You should have taught them to sit, cant fall out the bottom of a tank can you :hmm3grin2orange:

[ekfishlover2011]

I suggest maybe a partial lid so that the plants can come out of the back and the front is covered so the bettas have a much lower chance of jumping out.

[evilhorde]

I don't think a lid will help at all. They only leap around at feeding time. And I can't feed through the lid.
I suppose I could lower the water level, but I like to keep the surface hidden behind the trim on the tank. In my opinion it looks a little sloppy when the level starts getting low.

[Cyberra]

One of my female bettas jumped out of the tank last year... She managed to squeeze through a tiny opening above the filter, and fell back behind the dresser. I'm not sure how long she was there before I rescued her. Flit later died from the fall

[busycat]

It's probably hard to un-train a fish :goldfish:, my sister's female bettas all jump really high... her male ones don't jump no matter how you taunt them to jump. The best thing you can do is put a lid with some holes for oxygen and keep them from jumping out and hurting themselves :ssmile: You can feed them thru the holes so even if they did jump they your betta wont fly out :ssmile:

[pjaldave]

A screen lid would work, like the ones you will use for a terrarium. You can feed through it as well.

[bignellm]

I agree a few bonks to the head should help. Nice tight fitting lid would do the trick.

Lowering the water level will help too. Maybe even you could let them fast for a while and place a dark cloth over the tank. Maybe they'll forget their training when food doesn't come.

[Lady10Godiva]

Those screen lids are always really cheap at a local lfs. They take in used equipment and always get more screen lids than glass tops. I have naughty kitties so I keep my tanks covered so that is what I would do.

[Indian Woods Angels]

You really didn't teach them this trick. They are excellent jumpers on their own. You might have provided the catalyst for them but they have the skill. You must cover a betta tank. Even on my bowls that I use to raise the boys they can jump out. I stack them to cover the hop out spots. Little olympians they are.

[SamandAnne]

I don't know if this would work, but maybe worth it...along with the lid, when you go to feed them, if they jump, don't feed them at that time? That way you would not keep reinforcing the behavior. Somehow approach the tank from a different way and put the food in when they don't jump? Or, if you get the screen, wait until they stop jumping, then put the food in? I have no experience with training fish, just dogs, so it's just an idea. Or, could you teach them to do something else for food? Something that they can't do while jumping, like following your finger or a red laser pointer underwater? Then, for that only they get fed and it's impossible for them to do the new behavior and the jumping at the same time, and they only get food for the new behavior.

[evilhorde]

I stopped encouraging them and they seem to have simmered down on their own.
They still jump a little but it's just them trying to be first to the pellet and since they don't come with brakes, they tend to overshoot a little.

No more trick training bettas for me. sheesh.