Tricky Fish

[H.K.Luterman]

I was inspired to make this little journal after reading the thread about fish toys:

I'm a huge fan of positive reinforcement training; I've trained my dog to do all kinds of fun things with a clicker and some treats. I know that with patience you can pretty much train anything to at least touch a target, and with more patience you can train even more behaviors through shaping. You just have to understand the basic fundamentals of the process.

SOOOOOO... here's my blood parrot cichlid, Igor. He's a friendly little guy, and already knows my fingers = food. The high value treat I will be using are crushed ramshorn snails (he loves them!). 

 

The behavior I'm aiming for is, when introducing a hoop into the tank, he should immediately swim through it. Hoop = swim through. Seems easy enough.

The first step is desensitizing him to the hoop. He was very worried about it when I first put it in, so this session is just feeding him his dinner with the hoop hanging around. At one point I sink it further in and he accidentally swims through it. But it's obvious throughout the entire video he's still very worried about it. When he shows no fear of it at all, I'll move on to the next step. Might take a few sessions. 

I'll do a better job at aiming the camera next time. 

 

 

EDIT: If you are new to this thread and just want to see the eventual outcome, here's session 25, where Igor performs the trick perfectly.

 

Edited June 24, 2021 by H.K.Luterman

[OceanTruth]

Igor is such a great fish! Looks like he will definitely learn that trick one of these days. Very cool.

[lefty o]

fish can learn simple things like that. probably 20 years ago i watched a study on large mouth bass.  they made the fish go to certain colored squares placed in the tank to get food.

[H.K.Luterman]

It's dinner time, you know what that means.

That's right, more training my fish to do silly things. 

He seemed ok with the hoop this time, more preoccupied with my fingers holding it. I decided to just start luring him through. Eventually he should do it automatically, I'm thinking. 

 

[lefty o]

at the very least, that is entertaining. probably for the fish too as it is interactive.

[H.K.Luterman]

I'm really sorry about the camera angle in this one. He really wants to stay over on the right side of the tank. 

I think we're making good progress! I first started luring him through the hoop, but then began giving him a moment to decide what to do before rewarding. He does wander through on his own several times, though I do resort to luring him if he doesn't get it at first. 

 

[OceanTruth]

Looks like he’s starting to get it!

[H.K.Luterman]

Session 4 and 5. I now only reward once he goes through the hoop. In Session 4 he seems to start understanding there's no food in the hoop holding hand. Session 5 is much smoother, where he doesn't linger on my fingers as long. Looking back on session 5 I'm thinking I should slow down a bit, I noticed once or twice he's still chewing on the snail from the last pass when I treat him again. 

 

 

[OceanTruth]

These were the best sessions so far! Igor is wicked smart.

[H.K.Luterman]

Alrighty. So, Session 6 and 7 weren't the greatest.

Session 6 he back tracked a bit on obsessing over my fingers. He's also started trying to just swim forward around the hoop and not through it; he needs to learn that I want him to go through the hoop specifically.

Session 7 he was doing ok, but then got spooked and I couldn't get him back in training mode. I think he was distracted and weirded out by my hubby and I talking while I was training him. 

Session 8 we're back on track. He's obsessing less over my fingers, and though he tries swimming around the hoop, he does go back and go through it. At 0:35 he goes around it, and then there's a really cute moment where he looks for the treat in confusion. I think me keeping the hoop in there to let him sort it out is a good move.

 

[Maggie]

That's so adorable...when he nips at your fingers and then tries to go around the hoop, it's like he's looking into the camera lens saying "Look what this human makes me do for a snack. Feel sorry for me!", only to accept his fate and go through the hoop. 

[Hobbit]

This is awesome! Igor is so expressive! I wonder if there’s anything I could do in my community tank. Maybe teach the tetras to swarm something?

[H.K.Luterman]

1 minute ago, Hobbit said:

This is awesome! Igor is so expressive! I wonder if there’s anything I could do in my community tank. Maybe teach the tetras to swarm something?

If you have a betta, you can teach them to do tricks. I've seen videos of them jumping through hoops. The tetras might chase a laser pointer. 

[Hobbit]

I have two honey gouramis and two yo-yo loaches, and I’m sure they could learn some simple tricks if the other fish weren’t around to distract them. No betta unfortunately.

Any idea if the fish can hear the clicker under water? 😄

[H.K.Luterman]

Just now, Hobbit said:

I have two honey gouramis and two yo-yo loaches, and I’m sure they could learn some simple tricks if the other fish weren’t around to distract them. No betta unfortunately.

Any idea if the fish can hear the clicker under water? 😄

I was wondering that myself! Though I would have to get a different sort of clicker, I wouldn't want to use my dog's and confuse her. X3 

[Brandy]

I am pretty sure they could. My angel can hear me pick up the crinkly bag of vibra bites and he alerts the rest of the tank.

[Hobbit]

10 hours ago, H.K.Luterman said:

I wouldn't want to use my dog's and confuse her. X3

Yeah that would be bad. 😆

Well, maybe I should invest in a clicker!

[H.K.Luterman]

Time for a Stupid Fish Tricks update.

Still more improvement! 

Session 9: A bit of confusion on what exactly I want him to do (he tries just swimming forward and not through the hoop), but otherwise it was pretty smooth! Didn't get the very first pass in because I forgot to hit record. 

Session 10: Again, more confusion at first, especially since my hand got covered in duckweed. He does a cute little back and forth thing, as he seems to be trying to figure out what he's supposed to do.

Session 11: He has this funny moment of... confusion? Distraction? I'm not sure what's going on, where he's just kind of looking up at the treat and at me. "Resetting" the trick by removing the hoop and then putting it back into the water seems to snap him out of it. 

And now we come to today, where he has started ZOOMING. Again, there's the initial confusion, but the second pass he's on it, and then by the 3rd he's in super speedy mode. The last pass he goes so quick I didn't quite catch it, and waited for him to go through again. I'm wondering if I now start leaving the hoop in after he goes through the first time, if he'll go through multiple times and then I treat. I'd like to prolong the trick by showing yes, he does know to go through the hoop and he's not just swimming forward. 

 

[OceanTruth]

The progress is amazing! He’s super fast through the hoop now.

[Hobbit]

Aww! You can tell he’s really got it. I love that super cute hesitation before his very first pass in the video. “Okay, I think this is it, here I go...” He’s come so far from the super shy fish he was when you first got him!

What does Dragon do during all this?

[H.K.Luterman]

3 minutes ago, Hobbit said:

Aww! You can tell he’s really got it. I love that super cute hesitation before his very first pass in the video. “Okay, I think this is it, here I go...” He’s come so far from the super shy fish he was when you first got him!

What does Dragon do during all this?

Whenever I open the lid, Dragon sits on the bottom and waits to be fed - I feed him with long planting tweezers and put pieces of tilapia by his nose. Today though, he did get curious and started wandering upwards while I was training Igor. I was hoping his little curious face would get in frame, but I guess he never wandered high enough. 

[H.K.Luterman]

We're up to Day 16, and Igor's doing 2 passes through the hoop per treat. He's doing so good!

 

[Hobbit]

Amazing! He’s getting so much more confident.

[Anita]

On 3/14/2021 at 4:44 PM, H.K.Luterman said:

And now we come to today, where he has started ZOOMING. Again, there's the initial confusion, but the second pass he's on it, and then by the 3rd he's in super speedy mode. The last pass he goes so quick I didn't quite catch it, and waited for him to go through again. I'm wondering if I now start leaving the hoop in after he goes through the first time, if he'll go through multiple times and then I treat. I'd like to prolong the trick by showing yes, he does know to go through the hoop and he's not just swimming forward. 

 

This is awesome! 🤩 I love how the first time, Igor nudges your fingers like, "Hey! You! Where's my food?" By the end of the video, he sees the hoop coming toward the water and moves into the ready position. What a smart fish!

[Anita]

3 hours ago, H.K.Luterman said:

We're up to Day 16, and Igor's doing 2 passes through the hoop per treat. He's doing so good!

It is interesting that Igor has decided the hoop has an entrance and an exit. On the second try, he overshoots the entrance and rather than swim back through the "wrong" way, he circles around to go through the entrance. Same with his two loops. Rather than just swim back the way he came, he makes a circuit.

Super cool trick. Congrats! 👏