Comet the Performing Goldfish

The fish that plays football and limbo dances

By Katie Franklin and agencies

Last updated: 9:00 PM BST 06/05/2008

They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks, but apparently you can teach a two-year-old goldfish to bend it like Beckham.

Comet the goldfish may be the world's most intelligent fish after its owner, Dean Pomerleau, trained it to perform a range of aquatic activities.

Comet can play football, basketball and even limbo dance under a bar.

The genius of the water world can also play fetch with a hoop, slalom around a series of poles and push a rugby ball over a set of posts.

Dr Pomerleau, 41, from Los Angeles, used a training technique called positive reinforcement to train Comet to perform the tricks.

This involves rewarding the fish with food when it successfully completes a task.

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."

Dr Pomerleau already holds the official world record for having the fish with the largest repertoire of tricks, with a three year-old calico fantail named Albert Einstein.

But four-inch long Comet has already learned Albert's array of tricks and is set to take the crown of the world's most intelligent goldfish.

My Snails Overrunneth....

Well, it's been difficult updating my blog because so many of my fish family have gone and new have come, so I won't bore you with the details. Currently at home, I have a golden veil angelfish, an ivory mystery snail, an albino cory, and a panda cory. At work, I had a betta, but she died and I got two male guppies (now down to one), a ghost shrimp, and one red ramshorn snail.

Now, keep in mind I said I bought only one red ramshorn snail to my tank at work, because I thought the red color was pretty. But before I knew it, I saw egg sacs on the side of my tank: I had apparently bought a pregnant snail! Those have hatched, and those babies have already bred, and on and on (with many more egg sacs waiting to hatch now), and I have segregated nearly all of them to their own bowl, where they are apparently freely breeding with each other more, all within about a month's time.

So, this post is really my plea to anyone who wants one of these snails for FREE to add to your own freshwater tank. They do help keep the tank clean! Contact me if you are interested (serious inquiries ONLY), and I'd be happy to populate the rest of America's tanks with a snail! I don't see this coming to an end anytime soon....so the more taken, the better!! (Pickup in Washington, DC metro area only)

Sharlin, the Hungry Angelfish

My golden veil angelfish, Sharlin, always wants to eat. Every time someone is near the tank, he gets going with his little "hungry dance" to indicate he's ready to eat...which is ALL THE TIME. So I caught a couple of clips of him doing this, especially since it's hard to describe and difficult to believe. He's a very cute fish, with lots of personality for an aquatic fella.

Welcome to our expanded family!

Last you heard, we (Pete and Buzz) were the newest Aquatic Amigos with our Golden Chinese Algae Eater, Jin Long. Well, unfortunately he has also passed away, but there have been some changes since then. First of all, we moved to some new digs, a new 5 gallon aquarium--twice as big as our old home. We really like it there. Now we'd like to introduce the new members of our big tank, as well as those who moved into our smaller "apartment" in the meantime.

Otocinclus Algae Eater

We got him as a replacement for Jin Long, though a different kind of algae eater. He came when some algae started growing in our old tank, and he cleaned it up really well! Our owner didn't know what to name him right away, so he finally got the name Odo, after the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine character, since the Bajorans didn't know what to name him, either, when they found him.

One of "the hundred" sent out by The Founders long ago to explore the galaxy, Odo was found adrift in 2356 in the Denorios Belt by Bajorans, who indirectly gave him his name. It is unclear how long he had been adrift in the Denorios Belt. Since Odo had not yet learned how to morph into a humanoid appearance, he appeared in his natural gelatinous form. The Bajorans, not sure of what Odo actually was, put him in a container and labelled it "unknown sample". The Cardassian overseers translated this into their own language as "odo'ital", literally "nothing". Even after it became clear that Odo was sentient, the scientists kept calling him by that name, which eventually was styled (as a joke) into a Bajoran name "Odo Ital", then shortened to simply "Odo".

Fancy Guppy #3

George was added to the like of our number after we got a larger tank to fit him in. He is yellow and blue, befitting the colors of mom's graduate school, George Washington University, where he also got his name. He's the runt right now, but fitting in nicely.



African Dwarf Frogs

We got them in the tank as an addition for something different; they came in a pair to keep each other company. However, they pretty much do their own thing. One is larger than the other, so a good pair name decided for them was G'Kar (larger) and Londo (smaller), after the famous duo on Babylon 5.

In the smaller tank:

Angelfish

Sharlin became the star of the 2.5 gallon tank, a nice black and silver mottle/stripe angelfish. He got his name from the very angelfish-shaped Minbari War Cruiser ships of the Sharlin Class.





Albino Cory and Panda Cory Catfish

Marcus (Panda Cory) and Galen (Albino Cory) are a pair of cory catfish that keep the bottom of the tank clean. The particularly like to curl up in the cave together when they are tired or if there is food in there. They are named after Marcus Cole, a Ranger in the Army of Light from Babylon 5, and Galen, a technomage--and both were British comic relief.

A brief glimpse of hyperactivity

Since we are so active that it's difficult for our parents to get good pictures of us, mom took a video to show our playful interactions:

Meet the new family!

Well, since the aquarium is empty, we got a few new residents. Since two bettas have died just this year, we decided to get some different species to distance the grief somewhat and so we could have a community tank. Meet the family:

Pete is a male guppy that is orange with black spots. He is named after the mascot of Oklahoma State University, Pistol Pete, whose school colors are orange and black (mom's alma mater).

Buzz is also a male guppy that is yellow with black leopard-like spots. He is named after the mascot of Georgia Tech, Buzz the Yellow Jacket, whose school colors are yellow and white (dad's alma mater).

Jin Long is a Golden Chinese algae eater. He is named after the Chinese characters that mean "Golden Dragon."