I'm Jumping for Joy, and So Is Benson!

Ever since I learned about how smart and playful bettas are, one of the things I've been eager to do is teach Benson how to jump. Here's the thing about Benson: he's a pretty cool fish. He always rushes to the front of the tank when he sees me, he loves to play with me (chasing my finger), and he'll even eat pellets of food directly off of my finger. However, the one thing he would not do is jump for his food. I'd put my finger above the water (with a food pellet, of course) to try to tempt him, but all he'd do is stare at me like I was an idiot until I lowered my finger into the water.

That all changed on the fateful afternoon of 5/9. The fish gods must have heard my cries, because Benson FINALLY jumped! He only jumped once that day, but he jumped twice on 5/10, four times on 5/13, and three times today. I don't have any pictures or videos of his amazing feat, but this gives an idea of how I dangle my finger above the water to coax him to jump:

This lunatic cartoon person might need a lesson on overfeeding.

Things have been good in Benson's hood as well. On 5/3, his water had 10 ppm of nitrate and 0 ppm of ammonia. On 5/7, ammonia levels rose to an estimated .13 ppm, but nitrate and ammonia levels are still relatively low.

Overall, everything is just as great with Benson as usual, along with the added excitement of his new trick. My next goal is to dangle his food from a thread and see if I can get him to jump a bit higher for it.