stupid fish

[levia7han]

I realy love my dwarf gourami. But he is a bit of a moron. I thought it was neat that he would eat from my hand. And it was kinda cool to see him shoot water at food and knock it off my fingers. All that stuff.

But he has started doing this new thing. Just like a trained dolphin. He will jump outta the water and grab food from my hand..... Or just jump out of the tank cause he misses. like he did last night.

I picked him up and shot him with some stress coat and put him back in the water. Dosent seem like the fall hurt him... And for some reason his colors are actualy brighter. Like all he needed was a little polishing.

has anyone else had there gourmais do this. Is there a way to stop it. Or will he just learn after so many falls from the tank.

Lev

 

[exodon]

Unteach

hey, kewl on the gourami.

but...
it is always a problem to teach animals tricks as most of them eventually backfire. I taught my dog to open the house door when I come home so I dont have to get my keys. You can see the multitude of problems with that.
Ive also seen alot of Ocscars do the same as your gourami. They seem to be the easist to teach tricks to.

Can you unteach? No
Can you reteach, yes, but the price is, he wont do the trick anymore.

You can stop feeding him that way. Try a new approach and make it as uninteractive as possible.

You can use negative reinforcment when he does the trick at feeding. Perhaps spook him with the net or a quick tap on the glass. Whatever.

I had a customer lose a Parrotfish yesterday to the same thing as you. Unfortunatly.

Hope this helps

Exodon

 

[levia7han]

thanks Exodon

Those are some good ideas. I will have to work on them.

Its interesting though. I never tried to teach the fish, It just kinda started doing it. I wonder if they eat some kind of flying bugs that cause them to do that in the wild.

I dont know that tapping the glass will work. Hes got kind of a attitude. But ill try to spook him with the net maybe. Also Im going to start feeding on the other side of the tank from him. If he dosent see it then he wont jump at it.
Lev

p.s. I just got this picture in my head of a foot long Oscar jumping out of the tank to get food. THAT is scary.