# Training Bettas



## AquaKai (Jan 2, 2012)

Even though this isn't direct care with bettas it does supply entertainment and stimulation. I'm really wanting to teach my bettas some tricks, has anyone done this before? I've seen the R2 Fish Training thing, but has anyone done this with a betta? Any tips or ideas or anything?

I think that I have the basics and might try to start tomorrow!


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## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

What kind of tricks? Like swimming or jumping through hoops? Food. That's all I can say. Food is the greatest motivator for bettas.


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## Sena Hansler (Aug 24, 2011)

Yes. yes it is. :lol: Another thing, is you need their trust. If they trust your hand being there... it is so much easier. I have some of my bettas follow my finger, which with that I can have them go through stuff, like hoops, and with food on my finger tip they can jump for food. It took a good year to have Spartan trust me completely enough that I could close my hand around him, and not have him freak out. THAT was pretty cool (best if you have bigger hads/longer fingers that'll fit around the betta without actually rubbing against them).
eventually Spartan learned to beg, as well. (nose to top, look at me, nose to top, look at me)


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## AquaKai (Jan 2, 2012)

Ok, I will try the food and trust thing! I hope that this all works out well! Thanks


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## revolutionrocknroll (Sep 22, 2011)

Yeah, like training a dog, use positive reinforcement training with food as the reward for when your fish does the trick correctly. I'm teaching mine to swim through a hoop right now 
As Sena said, it's A LOT easier if they learn to follow your finger first.


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## Sena Hansler (Aug 24, 2011)

:lol: some do it naturally, because if it moves - chase it! and try eating it! :lol: Conan has THAT down ><

I wish you luck! =D


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## bluesushi (Jan 7, 2012)

My new betta is a huge pig, so i've been using that to my advantage. My goal was to have him jump out of the water to eat out my hand. On the first day, he'd only take dried bloodworms out of my fingers when i submerged my hand. On the second day, I hovered them above the water line and he caught on pretty quickly, and started jumping out of the water to eat. I've never tried training a fish before but it's going pretty smoothly.. i'm not sure what's next, but i'm thinking backflips and tiny motorcycles :lol:


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## Sena Hansler (Aug 24, 2011)

:lol: if you do that, video. aaaall the way. xD


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## Wolfboy51 (Oct 12, 2011)

my betta almost always does this sort of whale like jump landing on his side when i put food anywhere near the tank. whenever i come in the room he swims up to the top and 'dances'.


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## Sena Hansler (Aug 24, 2011)

:lol: that's cute!


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## WineDarkSea (Oct 8, 2011)

I have the R2 Fish School. My husband just gave it to me for Christmas. It's awesome! I also got a 10 gallon tank for my male CT, Valentine, so I have room to train him there though I do have to take all his ornaments out before training and put them all in afterward.

Valentine is taking to it amazingly. He learned to associate the feeder wand with food right away and when I introduced the first trick, swimming through a hoop, he got it on the first try. We're still working on refining the hoop to be smaller and for him to go through it from a distance. 

The kit is very good. It has everything you need, with both a booklet and a DVD covering training instructions. Those instructions are admirably self-explanatory and very basic, assuming you know nothing and are beginning from scratch. If your betta tends to be curious and interactive with you, ie following your finger when you draw it across the front of the tank, he will be a really good candidate, though I expect almost any betta could learn with enough persistence on your part.

I started a training blog for Valentine: http://bettacircus.wordpress.com/

It has links to videos that you can see.

I really do recommend the kit. Both Valentine and I are enjoying the training sessions.


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## Sena Hansler (Aug 24, 2011)

aww cool =D I might end up making my own haha!!


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## WineDarkSea (Oct 8, 2011)

I think the hardest thing about making your own would be duplicating the feeder wand. It's a long, well, wand which has a plunger on the top. When you depress it, the "food chamber" extends from the bottom. It's just a little pocket where you can put a pellet or such. It's composed of a long plastic insert with the food chamber, which is inside a plastic shell that covers the food chamber until the plunger is depressed. The idea is that the fish learns the food comes out of the end of the wand in one precise location, and follows that spot waiting for food. In this way, you can use the wand to lead or lure the fish.

For example, for hoop training, you hold the feeding wand in front of the hoop, and when the fish swims up to it, you quick move the wand to the back of the hoop. Fish swims through chasing wand. Then you slowly decrease the size of the hoop and the distance of the hoop, until your fish learns to associate swimming through the hoop with food, and as soon as the hoop is introduced, will swim right through it.

The hoop would be easy to make. The kit has a weighted base with a shaft. It has a adjustable hoop that you can stick into the shaft (base will also hold other trick things.) But you could, for instance, get some of those rings that are meant for birds and dangle it into the tank from above. I wouldn't recommend leaving non-aquarium things in the tank as they might leach, but the kit stresses highly that you're not supposed to leave your training equipment in the tank anyway between sessions, as if the fish gets used to it, they might ignore it when you're trying to get them to perform.

You could use PVC pipe for the tunnel trick. The sports-related tricks would be harder to make equipment for.

But that feeder wand...I can't think of any easy substitutes. You couldn't just put food on a popsicle stick or toothpick because it has to be underwater and move around a lot without floating away. It also has to be unreachable by the fish until you're ready to release the reward. I guess you could mess around with molding plastic or wood carvings, but at that point the kit is cheaper and easier. Maybe if you hung the bird ring from the top such that it was not completely submerged and used a toothpick/popsicle/finger to lure along the surface? I guess you could do that with a PVC pipe for the tunnel trick that was also right at the surface and only partially full of water?

The kit is only about $30. Honestly, I'd recommend saving up for it. It really is a sweet little kit.


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## Sena Hansler (Aug 24, 2011)

Yeah unfortunately for me, I'd have to order it. Camrose is lame x.x which is another 10-40 dollars, depending who, where, etc lol. Geesh I'm in a bad spot  :lol: I might just do what I did for Spartan and build trust with one (or more) of my bettas. I've usually used something they follow (stick, fish food spoon, etc) and eventually they register "follow = food"


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## WineDarkSea (Oct 8, 2011)

We had to order it too. I've never seen it in a store, just online. 

Just looked at the website. The kit is $29.99 but I couldn't find a price for shipping anywhere. I got it for x-mas so I dunno what hubby paid.


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## Sena Hansler (Aug 24, 2011)

18 dollars for me. plus the 29.99. >< I went to "checkout" then it asks for address, then before you actually pay, it shows shipping.


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## WineDarkSea (Oct 8, 2011)

Wow, they made you go deep to get that!

I'm a Canadian national, now living in the US. I remember the hideous cross-border shipping rates whenever you try to order anything. 

Maybe it's got a secondary retailer, Amazon or something, with better shipping. Try a Google shopping search.


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## Sena Hansler (Aug 24, 2011)

I tried amazon lol. USA only x.x Canada Amazon doesn't have it  nor does ebay  Actually most places I find anything I want/need is USA or high shipping xD Like you remember  still the same (if not, worse!) I'll probably keep an eye out. But, I think once Conan stops with his bitey stage he may be the one easiest to train for "trust" factor, like Spartan did.


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## WineDarkSea (Oct 8, 2011)

This may be your definition of trust, but I think what counts for a good training candidate is their willingness to focus on you. Also of course food motivation: the little piggies will do great because they'll do anything for the prospect of food! If your betta watches you all the time, comes to the front of the glass to make eye contact when you're visiting, follows your finger across the glass, comes to the surface when you open the hood...you've got a great little candidate. 

I think when you say trust, you're summing all that into one word though.


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## Sena Hansler (Aug 24, 2011)

He does that :lol: I can have my hand in the water next to him, and he could care less. He watches me, and actually prefers high traffic areas x.x He doesn't shy from me, like Dally or Shadow does either =D 

Except with Spartan, his trust went so far to allow me to "cup" him with my hand, and even close my hands around him briefly without getting scared. He didn't care for me doing that lol!! Anyone else, he'd spaz out if they got too close to him o.o 

I just won't do that with Conan because he is in the biting stage where he is more interested in attacking then learning :lol:


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## WineDarkSea (Oct 8, 2011)

Spartan sounds amazing. No wonder you miss the little guy.

You could probably start channeling Conan's biting into learning. I play tag with Valentine: let him chase my finger in circles around outcroppings of his fake reef or around silk leaves that stick out, or just in circles. (He cheats, though, without something to actually circle around and cuts across the 'circle' area. ^.~) Then I reverse and chase him with my finger, and he shrieks gamely and runs away. 

I bet Conan would play that game. If you feed him from your fingers, that will get him started.


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## Sena Hansler (Aug 24, 2011)

I definitely miss Spartan D: He even swam into the water change cup for me (better than surprise scooping, or a net!).

I tried that :lol: I had him chase me (DARN is he FAST!) then I reversed it. He doesn't back off XDD little bugger attacked me hehe. I feed him by the tip of my finger - like most of my bettas. Only ones I don't are the pirahnas (sorority) because they jump 3-4 inches :| and their bites are like needles stabbing :lol: El Dorado would play the chase game, just he'd pout when I chased him and sulk at the bottom of his tank until I go away -.- lol. weird fish...


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## WineDarkSea (Oct 8, 2011)

Valentine will swim right into his cup, did it from day one. Valentine has a pet betta too: Dracula. Dracula took longer, but he cup-swims too now. I recently got 3 girls; they're just finishing up their 2 wk QT. They ignore the cup and then get shocked when they're scooped, but at least they're not afraid of it. And, yeah, when they grab a pellet there's a splash and an audible chomp...unlike my boys! I haven't tried finger feeding yet because they're so serious about it. They do follow my finger across the glass...but then try to bite it. >.< I see why you don't finger-feed your sorority!

I can imagine your bond with your Spartan was much like mine with my Valentine. I don't even like to imagine how hard it must have been to lose him. I've read about your betta rescue, and I think that is a beautiful legacy for Spartan.

lol for Conan savaging you! Try working him up to reverse-tag by circling so fast that you catch up to him from behind. Try rewarding El Dorado with some food for being chased. Like, chase for just a couple of seconds and then treat. Work up to longer intervals.

I was just remembering this site, though I don't have the addy anymore, where a professional animal trainer was telling about a betta she got just to see if he could be trained. She had an alternative to a feeding wand. You know how dogs are trained with a clicker? She used a penlight. When the fish did something she wanted, she flashed the light so he could see (not in his face/eyes), then treated at the surface. Eventually, he associated the flash with the treat. When he learned that (surfaced for fod every time the flash went), she started encouraging him to swim through a hoop. When he did something right, she'd flash and then treat. Basically the same as a two-step feeder wand, though harder to lead/lure the fish around. If he follows your finger, though, you could run it along the glass to lead him. You'd have to do this in more stages than with the feeder wand, I think.


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## Sena Hansler (Aug 24, 2011)

:lol: I did get his fins, then he turns and gets even angrier  he is...well..Conan. The Barbarian xDD it fits!! And thanks for the tip of El Dorado. He was supposed to be a breeder, and end up being a pet betta rather :lol: he won't breed but -shrug- all well!

And thanks for the comment about Spartan. There's some stupid comments, aimed to bash me, but tell THAT to 5 already adopters, another 2 for February/March time... :lol: People rather bettas which they can SEE a transformation, which they can SEE the upkeep/tank, which they can SEE the TRUE color and activity. -shrugs- just saying =D One comment by the adopter of Reggie, was that she was happy she could take care of a betta that had been through rough time, but was not sick. she owned bettas before, but all were sick beforehand and she hated it.

And I used to snap my fingers. Ghengis responds to that immediately :lol: Maybe I'll "snap train" them? :3


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## LilyK (Oct 19, 2011)

I've trained both of my bettas to swim to the surface to a specific spot for feeding and to swim into a water change cup. Roch will even allow me to pet him if I feed him before hand.


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## WineDarkSea (Oct 8, 2011)

Snap training sounds like a great idea. I always wondered how well/if our fishies could hear sound originating outside their water...I know from scuba diving that sound produced _in_ water carries a great distance. Like you can hear boat motors from far away, and banging on your tank really carries. But anything that occurs out of contact with the water -- people talking on a boat or dock, thunder, etc -- is muffled out of existence. I wonder if it's because of the tank: perhaps the glass/acrylic acts as a conductor for sound vibrations, which you would not get in an open body of water?

But if they are responding to snapping fingers, then I guess I know they can hear us!

Yeah, snapping should be exactly the same as a clicker/penlight. Just make sure that every time you snap, without exception, you treat. It's really important to build up an indelible association between the sound and the food. Train on that first, and don't go to a hoop or anything until the fish has it down.

I've seen a number of people ask if El Dorado is the one in your avatar. He looks absolutely gorgeous; even his face is particularly cute. No wonder you wanted to breed him! Also no wonder you kept him. ^.^

About the rescue...I wonder if it's possible to advertise around, say, college dorms, Craigslist, public billboards at the library/grocery store for people to give you their unwanted bettas? That way you're saving potential flushies and not actually supporting crappy petshops/Walmart by buying their sick fish...though I certainly understand how hard it is to walk away from them! If you haven't already, you might go to the local shelters and make them aware of your program and see if they have any advice for you or could help you find adopters. Maybe they could even explain how to become a non-profit organization enabled to take donations. Idk, maybe you already do that.  I've never run a rescue so I'm just talking. I think it's a good thing, and that one adopter of yours described the same reasons people take a rescue dog. The concept is sound. I'm happy that Reggie and the others got well and found a good home.


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## Sena Hansler (Aug 24, 2011)

I'm in contact with two Edmonton fish rescues, I have a post up on Camrose Freecycle, and Kijiji  I know that to accept donations I have to be registered - therefore, it's only adoption fees (and shipping fees of course, for within Canada only during spring, summer and warm part of fall), plus donations like fish food, conditioners, tanks, etc are welcome :lol: Just for now, anyways. Once I get into a comfortable spot, and am able to expand I'll work more on it. I might ask the self run corner store near me, if they could put a poster up for me. 

Right now, on my site I do have available bettas up on the adoption list, listed as ADOPTED, DECEASED (Riddle...so unexpected.), available or adoption pending, and sadly for certain ones "adoption not allowed" like Shadow who has a high chance to fall into the disease that killed Maine AND Riddle. -.-

LilyK isn't that cute?! lol I love having bettas come to me for their food.


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## WineDarkSea (Oct 8, 2011)

Hey, LilyK, I think you and I were typing at the same time! Did you use food to lure them into the cup or just get them used to it?

Sena, you sound so very together. Good job. It's not easy to figure everything out from scratch!


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## Sena Hansler (Aug 24, 2011)

Nope it's not easy :lol: and it wil always be a work in progress because there is NO way for anything to work smoothly. Even spcas and pounds don't run smoothly (some people think they do...not always!!).

:lol: I just got Spartan to learn he needed to either 1. let me use the cup or 2. he'd be faced with the evil net. o.o


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## sholee (Jan 2, 2012)

hmm i'm still in the beginning of training my betta fish, had him for maybe 3 weeks now. I first fed him by damping the end of a plastic spoon with the tanks water and place a pellet on the tip of the end and hovering it over the water. Then, he would usually jump a little to get the pellet. Once he got used to the spoon and more interactive with my finger, I replaced the spoon and used my finger instead by putting the pellet on my finger and hovering it over his water. Now, I'm sticking the pellet on my finger and moving it around the tank so he follows it and gets used to following my finger and then i feed him the pellet using the hovering method. So far it's going great, my betta is very responsive. I do plan to teach him more in the future, seems like he trusts me a little more but still gets freaked out during cleaning which makes me feel really bad.


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## morla (Oct 8, 2011)

Yes, all I can say is food too! Bettas love food and they will do anything for it!


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## Sena Hansler (Aug 24, 2011)

Good job with the trust! in 3 weeks  I actually found with some bettas, what I did to allow them to understand I was not going to harm them, is (firstly clean my hands of any bacteria, and NO soap!!) is have my hand in with them, and slow movements = curiosity = acceptance.


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## AngesRadieux (Oct 6, 2011)

I got Severus to eat off my finger. I guess he's finally realized it won't hurt him. I've also started getting him to jump for food, but he's not the best jumper. He doesn't really get even an inch out of the water and he always misses the pellet. After he tries a couple times, I just put the pellet at the surface for him. I don't know if he'll get better at it with practice or if he's just naturally not a good jumper. Maybe I'll try teaching him to swim through a hoop, too.


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## LilyK (Oct 19, 2011)

WineDarkSea said:


> Hey, LilyK, I think you and I were typing at the same time! Did you use food to lure them into the cup or just get them used to it?
> 
> Sena, you sound so very together. Good job. It's not easy to figure everything out from scratch!


It started out at food training, but now they just do it whenever I up the cup in the water.


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## PiscisAmor (Jul 1, 2011)

My Dido follows my finger on the outside of the aquarium, we're working on inside

Aliquis is the smart one: he jumps, flares on command, follows my finger, and will eat out of my hand

Just start playing with them and see what they give you


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## cp6445 (Jan 14, 2012)

Never thought of it as a trick but my betta is obsessed with chasing my finger in the water, food or no food. He's quite funny he doesn't bite but constantly nudges and noses my hands if I have to put them in- I have to move my hands in slow motion if I have to submerge them just so I don't hurt him lol. Perhaps I'll have to start trying some fish training He'd likely embrace the attention!

Good luck with your training everyone!


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## Sena Hansler (Aug 24, 2011)

Lucky. Mine bites. :lol:


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## cp6445 (Jan 14, 2012)

Keller is an only child with no exposure to other bettas (except for his poor other neighbors at the Petco from which I rescued him). So I think he just never figured out that biting is an option


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## Sena Hansler (Aug 24, 2011)

:lol: lucky. I taught Spartan not to bite me, by bopping him carefully on the nose. However it never worked for Sasuke who was downright a meaner from the beginning.


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## cp6445 (Jan 14, 2012)

Lucky I wish I had multiple cutie bettas. Congrats on the rescue mission. I've seen some of your earlier posts. You could consider paypal for donations if you haven't already.


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## Sena Hansler (Aug 24, 2011)

Well, can't do that until I register as an actual non-profit, as seen by the government :lol: I just do adoption fees.


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## cp6445 (Jan 14, 2012)

Ah, I see. I'll have to go on the site and look more into that- Good luck!


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## Sena Hansler (Aug 24, 2011)

Thanks  sucks I had to turn down a betta today - had white fungus on his fins that were deteriorating, and he wasn't doing well. I just don't have room lol!


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## cp6445 (Jan 14, 2012)

Awwww! I have room... too bad your in Canada I think- I'm in US that'd be a bit of a hike for a betta-  Maybe he will find a home...


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## Sena Hansler (Aug 24, 2011)

Well, by the looks of him if he doesn't get help by tomorrow he'll be dead.  that fungus is almost to his body, he's swimming awkwardly and gasping x.x not to mention with other fish who'll end up chewing on him when he weakens x.x


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## cp6445 (Jan 14, 2012)

that's so sad- I want to go to my petco and buy all of them. When I go there to buy Keller stuff they all look at me like, "take me home too!"


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## Sena Hansler (Aug 24, 2011)

:lol: I know right? Luckily I don't have to go to the pet store for stuff like fish aquariums... everything is expensive, and too small for bettas if I could afford them.


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