Teaching an Old Fish New Tricks

Dean Pomerleau, and his son, Kyle, are animal and dolphin trainers who felt that they could teach another type of species new tricks - the tropical fish. Meet `Albert Einstein`, the intelligent goldfish won by the dynamic duo, and other fish who have learned to do tricks that are usually performed by other living creatures. These fish can swim through hoops and push a miniature soccer ball into an underwater net, and can fetch a ball from the bottom of the aquarium to the surface.

Working with his nine year-old son, Kyle, who trains Albert when Dad is out of town, the Pomerleaus have discovered that fish are smarter than most people imagine. Dean has applied to the Guinness Book of World Records to have his top pupil, Albert Einstein, recognized as the smartest fish in the world. The Pomerleau`s betta fish, Isaac Newton, learned to swim through hoops in two weeks. `The key is to reward them at the precise moment of the appropriate behavior,` says Dean.

`It all began when my kids won a fish,` says trainer Dean Pomerleau in an interview on Pet Fish Talk, a weekly Internet radio program for fish hobbyists. Explaining that he wanted to make fish more fun for his kids, Dean used animal and dolphin training techniques to see if the fish would respond. Dean was delighted when the calico fantail goldfish started to respond to a `feeding wand` he used as his primary training tool. `Initially you reward basic behaviors like approaching the ball,` says Dean. `With the encouragement of the food reward, fish can quickly learn complex tricks - like pushing the miniature soccer ball.`

                                 

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