Training/Conditioning Your Fish

[TicaL]

How many people attempt to? If you've been successful how have you done it, with what fish, and maybe some other detail you'd like to include. I'm wondering if it is possible to condition aggression or anything else, i.e. 'The boss of the tank chases a smaller fish away from it's center of it's territory and then in response another stimuli is set off via the fish keeper (a loud clap of the hands, pretending to swat at the fish, etc.). Do you believe fish can be conditioned similarly to most other animals and humans? I'm not prodding at the idea of teaching my fish any tricks but merely attempting to keep as many positive vibes among the community as possible.


I have an Electric Blue African Cichlid who's basically 'The Don' if you will of my tank. He doesn't do damage to any of his tankmates but he will harass them and generally try to maintain his privacy near his territory. When he chases my Green Terror the past few times immediately when I catch it I flick my lighter real close to the glass and it startles the Electric Blue but none of the other fish. Everytime I hold the lighter close to the glass he almost always retreats to his hiding spot. I think after having done this a dozen times or so he's started to realize to some extent that the other fish in there aren't food or atleast that *I* don't consider them food for him.


My intentions here are good and seeing it is that my Electric Blue African Cichlid doesn't seem to get stressed when I flick my lighter it's given me the hope or atleast the thought that conditioning aggression could be possible.


Any thoughts, questions, concerns?

 

[Brooklynella]

Back when I was 17-18 yrs old, I had a 55 with 2 very large Oscars and a foot long channel cat. Yes, i'm a criminal for overstocking, blah, blah, blah. Anyway, one morning I awoke from a drunken stupor to see Mom telling my fish to "Line Up". She fed each fish one pellet at a time. They were lined up like well trained pups looking for a biscuit. One of the Oscars tried to take a pellet from the other and Mom motioned for him to move over-AND HE DID.
Apparently, my Mom was feeding them like this every morning.

 

[bryan.olsen]

lol thats funny,
i have a 10" red devil and he is also the "don" of the tank...but im god,lol
whenever he would show any serious aggression i would breifly chase him witha net , now ive noticed that when im in the room he doesnt bother anything... however, when i leave all hell seems to break loose. i think the trick is to catch them right away, i assume it has the attention span of a hyperactive dog so you have to take that into concideration.

 

[TicaL]

lol thats funny,
i have a 10" red devil and he is also the "don" of the tank...but im god,lol
whenever he would show any serious aggression i would breifly chase him witha net , now ive noticed that when im in the room he doesnt bother anything... however, when i leave all hell seems to break loose. i think the trick is to catch them right away, i assume it has the attention span of a hyperactive dog so you have to take that into concideration.

That's true and I've considered this. I haven't set plans to make a lengthy experiment or anything of the sort I just stumbled upon the realization he gets frightened by the flick of the lighter while I was well, smoking haha and watching my fish. I don't know if I neccessarily intend on attempting to condition any of my fish in any way as I'm unsure as if I personally think it should be done but I find it interesting. I'm just curious as to what many of you think about conditioning a fish as it is a subject I have to assume interests MOST of us to some extent if we are indeed 'addicted' to the hobby. I've always been interested in psychology and have taken some classes in college but haven't really looked into animal psychology as much as I probably ought to since I love animals so much but all in good time I guess.