Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
TRAINED FISH
So far, everything seemed to be coming together, and while the
tuna work was going on, other aquarists were working with mo-
las. These fish have several attributes that made them a key species
for our new exhibit. First, they are truly open ocean animals. In
addition, their potentially huge size and their strange but charis-
matic appearance would make them an eye-catching sight.
The problem we faced with them is that they're slow. Speed
isn't important in the wild, where they feed on jellyfish—which
are even slower. However, in the large exhibit tank they would be
with schools of speedy bonito, yellowfin tuna, and barracuda. Get-
ting food to the molas could be a serious problem.
Molas may be physically slow, but we discovered during our
early experimental work with them that they're quick learners: they
figured out how to take food from our hands within only one or
two days. A mola we'd had several years before had also responded
whenever it saw the white feeding pole. If the ability to modify
behavior and quickly adjust to a new situation is a sign of intel-
ligence, molas must be the smartest fish around. We decided to
take advantage of this intelligence and train our mola to come to
us to get its food (we found one mola per exhibit to be best).
Aquarists Tim Cooke and Bonnie Grey made a plastic yellow
star and attached it to a pole. Just before and during every feed-
ing, the pole-mounted star was placed below the water surface of
the holding tank. Within a few days the mola had learned to as-
sociate the star with feeding time and would scull right over to
be fed. Positive reinforcement worked well, and when the fish was
transferred to the big exhibit tank, feeding progressed without any
problems at all.
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