Hey all! I’m Tai, a novice to real fishkeeping. (I had goldfish and bettas in bowls when I was little)
I have a 10-gallon tank with a betta and three pygmy cories, heated, filtered, cycled, the works. I’ve got six species of live plants in there, Anubias, java fern, Amazon sword, hygrophilia, elodea, and marimo moss. All are doing well, though the sword is a recent addition and still kinda melting.
I focus on behavior with my betta, Leo, and he’s an awesome fish. He’s completely tame and trained, acts like a little puppy swimming around my arm and hand when I’m cleaning the tank. He follows a chopstick around the tank (including from behind the glass), differentiates between colored felt, swims through plastic hoops, swims through a hand hoop, swims into a travel cup when presented with one, rests on top of my hand when I lay it flat below the water, and flares with an open/closed hand signal. I’m an animal trainer at heart and dedicate my life to training the animals most people don’t believe can be taught anything, through positive reinforcement, time, and love.
I don’t want any more tanks, but my plans for the future include working more with Leo and desensitizing him to travel so that I can share how intelligent many animals commonly thought to be “dumb” are!
Nice to meet y’all, I hope to become and stay active on this thread!