R2 fish school

[desdemona]

Hi,

I am new to the forum and am planning on getting a Bolivian Ram to do operant conditioning on-- this is where you try to get some behavior and reward it with food. You start with something easy and work up. There is a kit (and many videos) of goldfish being trained to swim thru hoops, knock a ball into a net, etc.

http://www.r2fishschool.com

I am carrying this one step farther by doing what is essentially clicker training (though I can't use a clicker with fish-- a light perhaps). You pair with food so that the fish will hopefully know that the light=food.

I wondered if anyone here is doing this with their cichlid?. My understanding is that they are relatively intelligent and curious.

--des

[RustyNut]

Cichlids are certainly motivated by food!

[Larry]

would be very cool!!
i think mine are already trained all I have to do is look at the tank and they all beg for food!!

[desdemona]

Or they've trained you, a thought I find even more frightening. :lol:

--des

[Larry]

lol

[RustyNut]

My fish are communicative..... for example, I have two different light fixtures on my big tank and one goes off roughly 30mins before the other.... after that light clicks off all my fish regardless of which tank they are in start splashing and making quite a ruckess until I feed them... they all see that light go out and know they are past their normal feeding time (The Provider forgot!) and they let me know about it! They do not act this way if I do feed them either.... smart little suckers.....

[desdemona]

I had a sw tank, and had a blenny. This one blenny I had would come out of his rock house for me, but not for other people. I thought that was very interesting.

I have done a little condition response with the mudskippers, inadvertently. I spritz the mangrove trees and then feed them. The mudskippers have correctly acertained that I will be feeding them and go over to the area I feed them in. Two connections, actually.

--des