Yes - we made this year's holiday edition of the "cool stuff" catalog nobody can pronounce - Hammacher Schlemmer. Our R2 Fish School Training kit is on pg. 21 of the printed catalog, or you can see it on-line here. The title is "The Fish Agility Training Set" - a pretty cool name. They even have a link to the video of Comet. Hopefully it will get lots more people excited about the hobby of pet fish training!
--Dean
Hammacher Schlemmer!
Fish for Obama!
Comet seems to have a very strong opinion when it comes to the presidential race. He insisted on this sign for his 'front yard'. And who was I to disenfranchise the world's smartest fish :-)
Don't forget to vote everyone. Whether you agree or disagree with Comet, your voice deserves to be heard too!
--Dean
Fish School on the Rachel Ray Show!
Out of the blue this morning my wife got a call from a friend who told us that we were featured on the Rachel Ray show this morning!
We'd sent her footage a while back, and the producer promised to give us a little bit of warning before they aired it. Oh well - that didn't happen. Fortunately,our DVR happened to be tuned to that station and we were able to record it after the fact (the miracles of modern technology).
It was really short - only 8 seconds total. But it showed me, my daughter Kendall behind the tank, and Comet doing three tricks - limbo, soccer and fetch. Here it is:
Fish School Puts Kids to the Test
We got a request and gave permission to use a story about Albert Einstein, our world record-setting trained goldfish as part of an upcoming standardized test for students in Indiana schools. I don't know exactly what the kids will be asked to do - probably reading comprehension like this text book. But I I find it amusing that for once, our fish will be testing kids skills, rather than the other way around!
Fish School Goes to College!
Fish training is a terrific way to teach students about Behavior Analysis, and it looks like this semester college students in the Department of Behavioral Science at McPherson College in Kansas are learning through a hands on project using the R2 Fish School training kit.
Here is part1 and part2 of a blog post about the course, including videos of two of their trained fish. Below is a picture of a fish named "Giovanni" swimming through the hoop. I can't wait to see the version with the ring of fire!
--Dean
Fresh Water Pearls Puppetry PR
Diane over at Freshwater Pearls Puppetry sent us a heads up about a very nice story (including video) featuring her success training her goldfish (Ricky and Mango) to perform in her latest show. Diane and her fish look great! We're very proud to have helped facilitate their success - Diane has used the R2 Fish School training kit to teach her little prodigies/proteges.
Congratulations Diane. I love the double hoop!
--Dean
Here is the video:
ZooToo.com Video Story
ZooToo.com did a video interview with my friend and business partner Russ Ronat from R2 Solutions and one of our enthusiastic customers about Fish School. They both did a great job highlighting the exciting new hobby of pet fish training. Check it out here, or click on the image below. Great job guys!
--Dean
Cool Gift of the Day!
The R2 Fish School Kit was featured as the "Cool Gift of the Day" at surprise.com. A nice honor. Hopefully it will encourage people to go ahead and purchase the kit for the fish lover in their life!
--Dean
Minnows and Social Learning
Here is a report on a neat new study from the UK showing that minnows are capable of shared social learning to avoid predators. Here are some details from the study, and observations from the study's author, Dr. Mike Webster from St. Andrews University:
Pretty cool stuff, showing fish are just naturally smarter than people give them credit for! --DeanDr Webster carried out a series of experiments to show how minnows escape being eaten by predators by using techniques of shared learning.
He discovered that a solitary fish separated from the shoal by a clear plastic divider, will make its own decisions when there is no threat.
But when a predator was placed in the shared pool, the single fish took its cue on how to act by watching the other fish.
The biologist said: "These experiments provide clear evidence that minnows increasingly rely on social learning as the basis for their foraging decisions as the perceived threat of a predator increases."
Dr Webster said sharing learning was a human trait.
He added: 'Traditionally fishes have been looked upon as simple or intellectually inferior animals that are incapable of learning, with notoriously poor memories.
"Although fishes are the oldest group this does not mean that they ceased evolving."
Edmunds Scientific Catalog
I know it makes me a geek, but I've always loved receiving the Edmund Scientific catalog. It always contains so many cool projects and gadgets - if fires the imagination.
Well, now it contains one more cool project - pet fish training! That's right, Edmunds is now carrying the R2 Fish School Kit. Here is the catalog link. And at least for today, we're on the home page of the Edmund Scientific website!
A perfect science fair project if you ask me.
--Dean
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