Fish School Blog

Fish Training in the Classroom

noreply@blogger.com (DP) — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 02:02:00 +0000

There is a nice article out today describing how teachers are using our fish training kit to teach kids important lessons in school. Here is an excerpt:

"Teachers are catching on to the educational benefits of the kit and educators across the country are using the kit as an in class science project. The Kearney School of Science, Communications and Technology in San Diego, CA and science teacher Joanne "JJ" Johnson have implemented the program. They have 10 tanks setup in her classroom and students are divided into small groups of 3 or 4."

"Team members experience a wonderful sense of pride and accomplishment when they demonstrate the skill of their “fish stars” to an appreciative and often incredulous audience.

"Students have learned that patience and consistency are essential to effectively train animals", says Johnson "Generating excitement in the learning process is at the heart of teaching. Fish School is tailor-made for this”.

It is wonderful to see the excited faces of kids when the start to train their class fish.

--Dean

Customer Videos!

noreply@blogger.com (DP) — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 22:38:00 +0000

Check out the great videos sent in by happy R2 Fish School customers. I especially like this sent in by Kdiddy1538. For his class project, he trained his betta named Navin to swim through the hoop, tunnel and under the low limbo bar. He gives Comet a real run for his money! Here are both Navin and Comet in action. You can judge for yourself!

--Dean

Fish Trainer of the Day

noreply@blogger.com (DP) — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 13:30:00 +0000

I want to get a shout out to Mary and her efforts training her goldfish Blaze. Mary is an animal trainer, and blogs at her website Stale Cheerios. Here latest effort involves training Blaze to swim under a decorative bridge in his tank using the R2 Fish School Training Kit. She, like a few other serious fish trainers, is using a flashing light as a bridge signal to cue the behavior. Watch the video below. Great job Mary and Blaze!

--Dean

Fish Trainer of the Day

noreply@blogger.com (DP) — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 12:58:00 +0000

I just had to share this great video Emily is made of her fish training progress, using the R2 Fish School kit. She and her fish are making terrific progress, which isn't surprising since Emily is a dolphin trainer by trade.

This video, complete with captions and side effects, is just day three of their training efforts, and already her fish is swimming through the hoop, touching the soccer ball, and swimming under the limbo bar. Check it out.

Great job Emily!

--Dean

A Puppy Not a Guppy

noreply@blogger.com (DP) — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 12:43:00 +0000

Hey fish friends,

There is a cool new children's book just out by Holly Jahangiri called A Puppy, Not a Guppy.

We here at Fish School are especially excited about it because it parallels much of the origins of Fish School, and because Holly has been kind enough to show us early versions of her wonderful book, and ask for our expert advise in fish training. It has been great working with her.

The hero of the story is a young girl named Irma. Just like my kids a couple years ago, Irma wants a puppy but her parents think puppies are too much trouble, and instead buy her three guppies.

Irma is disappointed at first and to cheer her up, her parents suggest she try training her guppies to do tricks like a dog. Irma thinks its a silly idea, but is willing to give it a try - anything to make her fish more interesting. I don't want to spoil it for anyone, but if you know the history of Fish School, you know the story has a happy ending!

The book is wonderfully illustrated by the talented artist Ryan Shaw, and even includes information about the real-life story of Fish School. Thanks for mentioning us Holly!

A Puppy, Not a Guppy is available at Amazon.com, and we here at Fish School give it two fins up!

--Dean

Why Not a Trained Fish Patrol?

noreply@blogger.com (DP) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 04:21:00 +0000

The US Navy announced today that it would be using marine mammals to guard some of its naval bases, like Puget Sound, to protect against homeland terrorists. Why not used trained fish instead, like I proposed a while back in a white paper I sent to the ONR a while back?

I never heard back from them...

--Dean

New Commercial and Web Site

noreply@blogger.com (DP) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 22:19:00 +0000

Hey Fish School fans - we've got a new website and 2-min informercial to bring the idea of pet fish training to a wider audience! I can't tell you how excited we are to finally have it completed. Check it out here.

--Dean

Guppy Training Down Under

noreply@blogger.com (DP) — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 13:22:00 +0000

Tess from Australia purchased the R2 Fish School training kit as a Christmas present for her husband, but couldn't wait to give it a try in her gorgeous community tank of guppies, platties, tetras & catfish. She said the guppies immediately learned that the wand means food. Here is a very short video of one of her first training sessions with the feeding wand:

Great job Tess!

--Dean

Cirque du Filet

noreply@blogger.com (DP) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:15:00 +0000

After several years of effort by she and her wonderful fish, Diane at Freshwater Pearl Puppetry has completed the Cirque du filet scene for her show, The Ugly Guppy:

As Diane puts it:

It's amazing how much of my life is wrapped up in that 5 minutes: two years... 10 beloved fish (8 of whom were loved and lost)... over 300 hours of training. But I'd do it again! (Glad I don't have to, however.)

Congratulations Diane! Kudos to you and your fish!

--Dean

NY Times Article on Smart Reef Fish

noreply@blogger.com (DP) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 23:43:00 +0000

Here is an interesting article in the science section of the New York Times on experiments by Australian researchers training small reef fish to recognize and respond to targets. The scientists say the ability to learn could provide the fish with survival benefits in the complex social environment of the ocean reefs. There is even a short video of a training session. Their feeding wand isn't nearly as cool as ours!

Daily Mail "Life as Goldfish"

noreply@blogger.com (DP) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 12:04:00 +0000

Fish School made the "Daily Mail" yesterday, one of the largest papers in the UK. We were part of a neat story on why life as a goldfish can be more exciting than you thought. They even linked to Comet's training session on YouTube. Check it out!

Lobster Training at the New England Aquarium

noreply@blogger.com (DP) — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 21:27:00 +0000

If you thought training fish was impossible, you'll really be amazed by this - folks at the New England Aquarium are training lobsters as described on their blog!

In this video, they are training a lobster to roll over on its back using food reinforcement. Who would have thought that even lobsters can be trained!

--Dean

Fish School Science Project - A Winner!

noreply@blogger.com (DP) — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 02:19:00 +0000

We've always thought Fish School would make a great Science Fair project. Now someone finally took us up on the idea. Megan from Allentown, PA did her 7th grade science fair project on how different environments & distractors influence the ability of fish to learn.

She won first place - great job Megan! I really like your poster, and the little soccer playing fish you decorated it with.

--Dean

Pet Talk Radio Interview

noreply@blogger.com (DP) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 14:19:00 +0000

Last Saturday I did a radio interview for Harrison Forbes for Pet Talk radio, a nationally syndicated radio broadcast about, you guessed it, pets. It was about a 10 minute segment, and came out pretty well. To listen for yourself, click here.

--Dean

BBC "Animals At Work" Segment

noreply@blogger.com (DP) — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 03:58:00 +0000

Comet and I have done quite a few TV segments, but I have to say this one for the BBC TV Show Animals At Work is by far the most amusing. I think it is so much fun because it features my two kids, Kyle and Kendall, being their goofy selves. Best of all, it shows Comet doing all 9 of his tricks.

Check it out and tell us what you think!

--Dean

R2 Fish School Voted "Best New Product"

noreply@blogger.com (DP) — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 13:13:00 +0000

Exciting news for all you Fish School fans out there. Our product, the R2 Fish School training kit was just earned first prize in the Global Pet Expo 2009 "Best New Products Showcase" under the Aquatics category. Global Pet Expo is the pet industry's largest annual trade show. The show was held last week and featured over 850 exhibitors in Orlando, Florida.

As our friend Russ from R2 solutions said in this announcement about the award:

"We are very excited to have achieved this great award. The R2 Fish School kit is an amazing product that captures the imagination of all our customers."

Hopefully this recognition will help introduce a lot of new people to the fun hobby of pet fish training.

--Dean

Impressive Customer Video!

noreply@blogger.com (DP) — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 01:38:00 +0000

Mary recently purchased an R2 Fish School training kit and for the last 10 days has been teaching her common goldfish (Blaze) to do tricks. He's making great progress. He reminds me of Comet when he was a youngster. Congratulations Mary! Check out the video she made of Blaze in action.

--Dean

Steelers Fish Fans

noreply@blogger.com (DP) — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 15:00:00 +0000

Comet and his new friend Boppy are big Steelers fans, as you can see. What other football team would black and gold fish from Pittsburgh root for?!

--Dean

Comet's New Friend

noreply@blogger.com (DP) — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 12:32:00 +0000

Comet has been looking lonely lately, since is friend Brainiac died a couple months ago. So we bought him a new companion, a nice calico fantail goldfish that we named Boppy, after my dad, who recently passed away. He's nearly as handsome as my former fantail, the fish that still holds the Guinness World Record for the fish with the most tricks, Albert Einstein. As you can see from the pictures below, or the live webcam, the new friends are getting along well.

--Dean

Target Feeder Now Available!

noreply@blogger.com (DP) — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 02:05:00 +0000

The corner of the Fish School Training Kit is the feeding wand - that allows you to reward your fish with food when and where in the tank your smart little guy performs a trick. But the feeding wand is not just useful for fish training. It can be helpful whenever you want to target a specific fish for feeding. For example, in a crowded tank sometimes shy fish don't get much food. Or sick fish that are hanging out at the bottom of the tank.

Now, in collaboration with our partners at R2 Solutions, we've made the feeding wand available as a standalone product, called the "Target Feeder". It is available at several retailer stores, and on-line at ThatPetPlace.com. Here is their ad for it:

Fish Training Limerick on NPR

noreply@blogger.com (DP) — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 02:04:00 +0000

Yesterday Fish School was featured on National Public Radio, during a segment on the news quiz show "Wait...Wait don't tell me!". To listen for yourself, check out this link. Our story starts at the 3:30 mark.

--Dean

First Pet for the Obama Family?

noreply@blogger.com (DP) — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 11:48:00 +0000

Given his recent campaigning on President-elect Obama's behalf, and given the fact that the Obama family is looking for a first pet, we at Fish School were thinking Barak and Michelle might consider getting a trained fish rather than a puppy for their kids. Here is a quote from our rather tongue-in-cheek press release on the subject:

Why not a well trained, hypoallergenic, family fish, my fish “Comet” can do some tricks as well as any dog I have ever seen,” says Dr. Pomerleau. “Comet” regularly performs the “fetch” trick.

How about it - Comet for "first pet"? I think he'd do our country proud :-). Is Obama's slogan all about change?!

--Dean

LA Times: "The craziest pet stuff on the Web"

noreply@blogger.com (DP) — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 02:47:00 +0000

Fish School made the "Home & Garden" section of the Los Angeles Times, one of the nation's largest newspapers. It was part of a story called The Craziest Pet Stuff on the Web, that also included a doggie treadmill (for people to lazy to walk their dog outside) and wigs for cats. Only those crazy folks in California would buy wigs for cats. Pet fish training though is not so crazy :-).

They included a nice picture of Comet shooting a soccer goal. Pretty cool!

--Dean

Hammacher Schlemmer!

noreply@blogger.com (DP) — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:22:00 +0000

Yes - we made this year's holiday edition of the "cool stuff" catalog nobody can pronounce - Hammacher Schlemmer. Our R2 Fish School Training kit is on pg. 21 of the printed catalog, or you can see it on-line here. The title is "The Fish Agility Training Set" - a pretty cool name. They even have a link to the video of Comet. Hopefully it will get lots more people excited about the hobby of pet fish training!

--Dean

Fish for Obama!

noreply@blogger.com (DP) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 01:53:00 +0000

Comet seems to have a very strong opinion when it comes to the presidential race. He insisted on this sign for his 'front yard'. And who was I to disenfranchise the world's smartest fish :-)

Don't forget to vote everyone. Whether you agree or disagree with Comet, your voice deserves to be heard too!

--Dean