Training Your Fish

Updated on 2/10/15, Originally posted on 3/17/12/

Bible Verse: Ecclesiastes 9:12 For man also does not know his time: Like fish taken in a cruel net, Like birds caught in a snare, So the sons of men are snared in an evil time, When it falls suddenly upon them.

Live your life for Christ while there is still time, for you don’t know when your time will end here on Earth.

Creature Tip: Yes, you read the title right, “Training Your Fish”.  Fish can be trained, but of course not like a dog (you know fish can’t be trained to walk on a leash lol).  You can train your fish to come to the surface of the water to eat fish flakes.  Okay you might think that is dumb because the fish will do this anyways.  So why train them to do something they already know how to do?  Here’s why: you want to train your fish to surface as soon as you feed them so they will eat right away.  Training a fish to eat right away will help prevent food from getting lost; thus your fish tank will stay cleaner longer.  Before we trained our fish to surface and eat, we would turn off the filter so the food would not fly all over the tank and get sucked up by the filter.  After training was complete, shutting off the filter was no longer necessary.  The fish would instantly know when to eat so very little food would get lost/trapped in the décor and sucked up by the filter.  Maybe your fish are smarter and know when you reach for the food it is time to eat.  But for those fish that don’t get it, here is an easy and simple way to train them.  Before feeding your fish, turn on the tank light and give them food.  Do this every time you feed.  When your fish are done eating you can turn the light out or leave it on for a few hours if you wish.

In this photo below you can see that all the fish are surfacing to eat.

In just a few days, your fish will associate the tank light with the food and instantly come to the surface to eat.  If you like to leave your tank light on all the time then switch it off for a few seconds then back on when you feed.  This method will work even if you aren’t feeding fish flakes that float.  The fish will know it is feeding time when the light comes on and start looking for the food instantly.  We used to have a Plecostomus (Algae eating fish) and he always knew to look for his sinking food pellets when the light came on.  We also would drop the pellets in the same place every feeding so he knew right where to look for his food.  Another benefit of training your fish to know when it is time to eat, will be that all the fish find food at the same time.  This helps to ensure that all your fish get an equal amount of food and no one is left hungry.