Now I've gone and done it...

**evilhorde** · 06-01-2012, 02:41 AM

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** · 06-01-2012, 02:49 AM

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

**dmagerl** · 06-01-2012, 02:55 AM

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-projec...-projects.html

**PhillipOrigami** · 06-01-2012, 03:27 AM

Strange ad? Spam? No one knows, but Goldfish and oscars are not necessarily 1-6" fish.... lol

I feel sorry my friend... Agreed with MCHRkiller.

**evilhorde** · 06-01-2012, 03:52 AM

more trained fish.

**Cyberra** · 06-01-2012, 06:48 AM

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

**ScottishFish** · 06-01-2012, 09:54 AM

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

**ekfishlover2011** · 06-01-2012, 02:59 PM

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** · 06-02-2012, 02:50 AM

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** · 06-02-2012, 06:16 AM

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