How to Train Your Betta

[Bettaluv]

gosh, now I really want a betta to train!

If you have any other fish that is slightly larger, and well, just a smarter fish than neons or something like that, you could train them too. I specialize the training techniques for bettas, but they would work on other fish too!

 

[Hobgob]

I'm confused, I thought everyone knew that female Betta fish are better then the males...
For jumping through a hope, I couldnt see the male Betta getting enough speed to jump with all the fins slowing him down. He wouldn't have got any speed. Would have been funny to watch though! Struggling to get moving a decent speed and then flop he got his head out... Did you get any Betta to do it? Also do you have any YouTube Videos I wanna see them... Also what do you keep your betas in?

 

[ashleynicole]

With all of these treats and training sessions wouldnt the betta become overfed and bloated? I have one betta that I hand feed but they only get fed once a day and very small amounts

 

[Hobgob]

If you have any other fish that is slightly larger, and well, just a smarter fish than neons or something like that, you could train them too. I specialize the training techniques for bettas, but they would work on other fish too!

Wait why are neons dumb? The neons in my 110 should have been eaten by no but outsmart all the angel when they were in there and now it's the kribs. The neons aren't faster then them but seem to fool them pretty good.

 

[Bettaluv]

I'm confused, I thought everyone knew that female Betta fish are better then the males...
For jumping through a hope, I couldnt see the male Betta getting enough speed to jump with all the fins slowing him down. He wouldn't have got any speed. Would have been funny to watch though! Struggling to get moving a decent speed and then flop he got his head out... Did you get any Betta to do it? Also do you have any YouTube Videos I wanna see them... Also what do you keep your betas in?

The males did, but only with lower hoops.
Yes I have gotton my own betta, as well as my friends bettas and they have all been able to perform the task, some learning within one week!
No, I do not have a YouTube channel nor do I plan to get one.
I keep my bettas in 5-5.5 gallon tanks, with low flow filters, heaters, and weekly 50% water changes.

 

[Bettaluv]

With all of these treats and training sessions wouldnt the betta become overfed and bloated? I have one betta that I hand feed but they only get fed once a day and very small amounts

No, as I say in all of my tutorials, you want to keep training sessions to a minimum, and break all treats into VERY SMALL pieces. Some bettas have huge stomachs, so when you see that your betta is full, you need to stop, I figured everyone will automatically assume that with what I said...suppose not. Well, now you know. And when I am training, I feed less for their meals, because they are making it up in their "treats". I did mention to only have a few small training sessions per day to prevent bloating did I not?

 

[Bettaluv]

Wait why are neons dumb? The neons in my 110 should have been eaten by no but outsmart all the angel when they were in there and now it's the kribs. The neons aren't faster then them but seem to fool them pretty good.

I did not nessessarily say that neons were dumb, I was saying that bettas, goldfish, and basically the larger fish have a greater capacity to learn these tricks

 

[LyndaB]

and break all treats into VERY SMALL pieces.

This can actually be quite dangerous since their stomach is only the size of one eye. I mean, that treat would have to be broken up into miniscule pieces.

 

[Mundle]

Hi I'm 16 and I trained my Betta to jump out of the water a good inch and a half
Once a day I would put bloodworm on my finger
First in the water
Then slowly raising it
It took like a week to learn it
Ps " come" was easy
PPS thanks for this thread

 

[ashleynicole]

No, as I say in all of my tutorials, you want to keep training sessions to a minimum, and break all treats into VERY SMALL pieces. Some bettas have huge stomachs, so when you see that your betta is full, you need to stop

Do you realize a betta's stomach is the size of their eye? And fish food swells in water. I feed mine one bloodworm and that's it for a day. Another day they get 1-2 betta pellets and that's all. Then I skip a feeding day. Then I will feed 2-3 brine shimp. The only time I increase feeding is if I condition to breed I increase their meals to 2-3 a day but still very small amounts.

With your methods it would seem you are potentially shortening their life spans by overfeeding.

 

[Hobgob]

This can actually be quite dangerous since their stomach is only the size of one eye. I mean, that treat would have to be broken up into miniscule pieces.

True! An inch fish only needs like a cm long flake a day to stay alive. Although its not a balance diet in my eyes...

 

[Maxkolbe]

Do you think I could teach these tricks to my African cichlids?

 

[Bettaluv]

OK, you all I am obviously not getting my point across clearly. These tricks can be taught to all fish (at least bigger than a betta). You only treat the betta with very small pieces of bloodworm, and you don't train them all day. In five minutes, you could probably coax your betta to do the "jump through a hoop" trick once, so that's one tiny piece of bloodworm. AND I said that you only do so much training until your bettas stomach is full. You CAN tell when it is full by the size of the belly, therefore, you will know when to stop.

WAIT!!!
I see what you all are talking about and that was a fault by me when typing. I train with multiple fish in one setting. I only do about 5 training sessions amongst all of the bettas in one day. I only usually do max 2 sessions per fish, and I don't even do that many once the fish get the trick down.
I would never put my fish in danger, and I am not overfeeding, this depends on the number of fish you have as to how many training sessions you do per day. My fish have never become bloated because I limit the amount of training sessions per day.

 

[oscarchic11]

I have an oscar. She is about 10", and ive had her for about 7 months. She is quite well trained, using the same principles you talk about, but on a much larger scale. She will come 3 inches out of the water and hand feeds readily. She also nibbles all fingers put on her tank (a trick i regret now that her teeth are getting bigger) and is target trained (a trick i taught to assist in taking pictures). She also likes to be petted. Just thought id share my success

 

[Bettaluv]

I have an oscar. She is about 10", and ive had her for about 7 months. She is quite well trained, using the same principles you talk about, but on a much larger scale. She will come 3 inches out of the water and hand feeds readily. She also nibbles all fingers put on her tank (a trick i regret now that her teeth are getting bigger) and is target trained (a trick i taught to assist in taking pictures). She also likes to be petted. Just thought id share my success

That's great! She seems very cute! I did have my old betta target trained, but the new one is having difficulty....lol. I might post a lesson on target training...

 

[emerald76]

No more lessons?