Soccer-playing Goldfish

Posted by Miss Cellania in Animal on May 5, 2008 at 9:59 am


A goldfish named Comet has been trained to play soccer, basketball, and even dance the limbo! He can also fetch and swim a slalom around tiny poles in his tank. Comet’s owner, Dr. Dean Pomerleau used the technique of positive reinforcement by rewarding Comet with food.

Dr Pomerleau insisted there was nothing fishy about his claim, saying anyone can teach their pet to perform similar tricks.

“There is mounting evidence that fish are more intelligent than people give them credit for,” the fish training expert said.

“With the correct tools and the basic promise of a food reward, fish can very quickly learn complex tricks – like the limbo, slalom or playing fetch.

“Now people in the market for a dog might want to consider a fish instead.”

The two-year-old fish has been called the world’s most intelligent goldfish. Link -via Fark


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10 comments to "Soccer-playing Goldfish"

  1. sal
    May 5th, 2008 at 10:26 am

    Yay Comet!

  2. SenorMysterioso
    May 5th, 2008 at 11:05 am

    adorable

  3. Alannah
    May 5th, 2008 at 11:39 am

    I guess that puts the whole 'goldfish only have a two second memory' myth to bed.

  4. Ali S.
    May 5th, 2008 at 12:13 pm

    Gooooooooooal-fish! ;)

  5. tigergal39
    May 5th, 2008 at 9:54 pm

    I wonder if you can teach him to roll over & play dead :)

  6. Viola
    May 5th, 2008 at 9:59 pm

    I'm pretty sure fish are just as dumb as we think they are. I had one that liked to jump up out of the water. One day he got overexcited and jumped right out of the bowl. I wasn't home, so he died. Real smart.

  7. Ant
    May 5th, 2008 at 10:53 pm

    Adam and Jamie did something like this to test the goldfish memory myth on MythBusters.

  8. windowshoppist
    May 6th, 2008 at 4:11 am

    What a cool fish! (And owner.) I wish someone would give ME a food treat every time I did something right, though... Maybe I can be a goldfish in my next life.

  9. Tempscire
    May 6th, 2008 at 12:19 pm

    This is like that toilet/keyboard germs report... every year now it seems to get dragged up again by someone. This is at least the third time I've seen something in the last couple years about goldfish actually having a memory.

  10. Barbwire
    May 6th, 2008 at 11:11 pm

    Somehow I just can't imagine cuddling up with a fish...


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