Dr. Dean Pomerleau
Kyle Pomerleau

 

Dr. Dean Pomerleau

This is Dean and Kyle Pomerleau, inventors of Fish School. In 2004, Kyle won two common goldfish at a school fair. After watching them for a couple weeks, we came to suspect that there was more going on in their little brains then most people give them credit for. On a whim, we decided to see if we could train them to do tricks using techniques commonly used to train dolphins, dogs, and circus animals.

And so, Fish School was born.

Being engineers at heart, the first thing Kyle and I did was to create equipment to make it possible for fish to learn and perform tricks. Then, through a long process of trial and error, we developed techniques that make training pet fish not only possible, but also quick and fun too!

It worked so well that we decided to create a web site to show off what our fish had learned. People who saw it thought it was so cool that they asked how they might train their own fish.

So we wrote the original Fish School training manual and even made copies of our training equipment to show them how. But we soon realized that making equipment by hand so that others could train their own fish was very time consuming and difficult. Plus, the the equipment we had used was not ideal - Fish School had really been a labor of love for us.

So we teamed up with R2 Solutions to develop an all new innovative fish training equipment kit including expanded and new tricks together with an all new instructional material - in the form of a richly illustrated manual and a very entertaining and informative DVD. The R2 Fish School Kit is truly everything you will need to teach your fish amazing tricks. The R2 Fish School kit will be available at retailers nationwide in February of 2008. For product or media inquiries please visit: www.r2fishschool.com

Part of our original motivation for Fish School was to satisfy Kyle and his sister Kendall's desire for a 'real' pet, which they equated with a dog or (maybe) a cat. It is sad to say, but even the most avid aquarium hobbyist will admit that your average pet fish isn't nearly as exciting as other more personable pets. Lets face it, fish may be beautiful, but in most people's eyes they are more like home decorations than true pets. Fish don't have much personality, and they almost never interact with their owner in any significant way.

Instead of caving to the pressure from the kids to buy a dog (a problem in our house since my wife is allergic!), we decided to see if we could make fish into more interesting pets.

We hope you'll agree after viewing the photos and videos and the live webcam of our fish in action, that we've succeeded in this goal. Not only do Kyle and Kendall think the fish we've trained are cool, their friends (and their friends' parents!) love to visit our house and watch our fish do their tricks. And now with the introduction of the R2 Fish School kit anyone can teach their fish to do these same amazing tricks. It really is fun and easy.

If nothing else, we hope our website brightens your day and provides you with inspiration. Ask yourself - if pet fish can be trained to do tricks, what else might be possible!

If you would like to learn more about Fish School, you can listen to the 30-minute interview we did for the popular internet radio program Pet Fish Talk with Tom and Nevin Bailey. Alternatively, you can contact us directly, or ask a question on the Fish School Forum - we'd love to hear from you!