Fish School Blog

Teaching Students by Teaching Fish!

noreply@blogger.com (DP) — Fri, 18 May 2012 15:13:00 +0000

Rus Wilson, an instructor at the English Language Institute at the University of Utah is using techniques (and soon, equipment) from the R2 Fish School Training System in his upper level science class to teach students English vocabulary, and to teach them what university science courses are like. In this video, Rus talks about his students training bettas to learn about psychology concepts like operant conditioning. Using a flashlight as a bridge reward, Rus's students have taught their bettas to swim through a hoop multiple times to earn a reward.

Next Rus plans to have his students use the feeding wand from the R2 training kit, as well as teach their bettas to play soccer. That should be interesting!

Siani the Trained Shanny

noreply@blogger.com (DP) — Sat, 05 May 2012 01:03:00 +0000

Hey Fish School fan! Here is a really impressive example of how wide a range of fish can be trained with the R2 Fish School training kit. Check out these videos of Tim Menai's fish named Siani swimming through the hoop. Siani is a shanny (also called a "common blenny", scientific name Lipophrys pholis).

What makes Siani's progress most interesting for me is that she is a bottom-dwelling saltwater fish, making it especially challenging for her. Check out how she perches on the edge of the hoop before swimming through. Very cool! Tim says he and Siani are working on the fetch trick next. We can't wait to see it!

If anyone else has videos of their fish doing tricks, please send them to me and I'll post about it.

Fish School in NY Post

noreply@blogger.com (DP) — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 13:21:00 +0000

Today there was a nice article in the NY Post about Fish School, including a picture of Erica Keating using the R2 Fish School Training Kit to train her three goldfish, Swimmy, Teeny & Special. Way to go Erica!

Fish Training at the New England Aquarium

noreply@blogger.com (DP) — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 13:18:00 +0000

Our friend and partner Russ from R2 Fish School posted a link on his Facebook page to this video from the New England Aquarium of one of their curators training training Blondie the lump fish swimming through a hoop. Its hard to tell, but it looks like they are using one of our training kits. Pretty cool to see professional fish keepers starting to pursue fish training!

--Dean

Drench TV Commercial

noreply@blogger.com (DP) — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 15:27:00 +0000

Here is a really clever TV commercial for Drench bottled water, posted to the R2 Fish School Facebook page. The goldfish is named Mr. Memory, and he can do some very impressive stunts. Somehow I think there is a bit of trick photography going on, but very cool anyway!

--Dean

Video of Goldfish Trained to Fetch

noreply@blogger.com (DP) — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 00:28:00 +0000

Here is a really nice video of a goldfish trained using the R2 Fish School training kit to fetch a ring. Really impressive! Almost as talented as Comet :-). And the video has over 120,000 views in just a couple days!

But what's with the cloudy tank? If you're going to take the time to train and video your fish doing tricks, you really should take better care of the tank!

--Dean

Girl Teaches Goldfish How To Fetch - Watch more Funny Videos

Fish Welfare Survey

noreply@blogger.com (DP) — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 12:17:00 +0000

Miriam Sullivan from the the University of Western Australia is studying the welfare of aquarium fish. She's conducting a survey on the topic to better understand people's attitudes and practices when it comes to pet fish keeping. It is a topic that really deserves more attention, and we here at Fish School commend Miriam on her fine work. We encourage all of our readers to fill out the survey - it only takes a couple minutes.

I hope Miriam can help change the general public's sad indifference towards the welfare of fish, both in home aquariums and in the wild, as exemplified by this week's tragic defeat of an effort to save the majestic and endangered bluefin tuna. Land animals (like polar bear) are treated badly enough when protection might inconvenience people or impede commerce, but when fish are being exploited or abused, their welfare ranks far below land animals, almost as if they don't count at all.

--Dean

P.S. This is the 200th post to the Fish School blog. Quite a milestone - thanks for reading!

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