Every kid out there has had a pet fish at some point, right? We actually used to have a pretty great aquarium when I was a kid, for which I have to my parents full credit. It was vibrant and (I hope) somewhat interesting to its inhabitants, the oldest of whom was a small, pale catfish named Leopold.

Nonetheless, fish — especially goldfish — often have a rough lot in life. Those poor guys who are handed out in plastic baggies as “prizes” at fairs always make my heart sink. Obviously people don’t think they’re worth much.

Dean Pomerleau and his son, Kyle, founders of Fish School (you heard that right, folks) have totally turned expectations of ordinary goldfish upside down, demonstrating their trainability and showing them to be totally pawesome (finsome?) pets.

The story goes something like this:

In 2004, young Kyle won (arg!) two goldfish at a fair. When the fish hadn’t died after the customary two week period, the Pomerleaus decided to get creative. Perhaps because they couldn’t own furry animals (mom’s allergic), they were especially motivated to do everything they could to foster their relationship to their fish.

They started crafting training tools and techniques to work with their fish, training them to swim through hoops, nose soccer balls down an underwater pitch, shimmy through tunnels, and more. It’s pretty incredible. Eventually they teamed up with R2 solutions to mass-produce their training implements and a full-on training manual & kit. Yes, you too can train your fish to do these tricks!

Don’t believe it? Let YouTube  prove you wrong:

Related posts:

• Synchronize Your Goldfish
• You Can Teach an Old Goldfish New Tricks

(Image: Fish School)