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Post by Nerius on Mar 21, 2020 21:24:10 GMT -6
How exactly did one train a fish? That had been Nerius' question since he'd come up with the idea to try to train his seryn, and as he reached the loch, he still didn't have an answer. Of course, his skills at land dwelling creatures was hardly any better, and his usual method for training was '...err.. wing it?' Seryn at least were supposed to be very smart, more so even than a vulticus or equillion, not that he had experience in training either of those. Sure enough, Ianthe seemed much more.. aware, than fish usually were. Her eyes were much more alert, and seemed to track whatever interesting things they'd gone past on the way here. The blacklight seryn was currently swimming in what was essentially a glorified giant fishbowl, not a good habitat for long term living, but suitable for transportation. Nerius didn't plan to keep her in the tank for training, why bother heading all the way out here for that. (Nerius: 1/10)
(Ianthe: Lv: 0, 1/5 | Lyl: 7, 1/5)
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Post by Nerius on Mar 21, 2020 21:40:30 GMT -6
He didn't want to the dump the tiny fish right into the big lake though, it would be easy to loose her if she got spooked by something, or worse be eaten by someone's poorly trained water beastie. Most aquatic creatures from the Labs were much larger than a baby seryn, and the little fish would be a bite sized snack. That was very much not what he wanted, and Nerius had chosen a small inlet, a grotto technically, though that made it sound much larger than it really was. It was also netted off at the entrance, to keep anything from swimming in, or out.
It was an excellent place to train a seryn (he hoped), but first he needed to give the saltwater species one of the special tablets. He wasn't sure what to do if the seryn didn't want to eat it, but fortunately that wasn't an issue, and Ianthe went right for it, thinking it was food.
(Nerius: 2/10) (Ianthe: Lv: 0, 2/5 | Lyl: 7, 2/5)
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Post by Nerius on Mar 21, 2020 22:02:47 GMT -6
Ianthe didn't appear to like it overly much, but didn't spit it out at least. Next was to get her in the water, but he didn't just want to dump her in. Instead, he set the tank in the shallow loch water, to let the temperature adjust a little more slowly. Nerius wasn't sure if this step was necessary, Lab make creatures were usually more sturdy than wild ones, but it didn't hurt he supposed.
It was a warm day, for the season, which was why he'd chosen today to take the little fish out for a training trip, and while the water had warmed a bit, it was still cold enough that Nerius didn't really want to go for a dip. He might not have minded cold weather, but he didn't really want to go swimming in chilly water. The grotto was warmer than the rest of the loch, it was much more shallow and there was less to heat.
(Nerius: 3/10 +Added!) (Ianthe: Lv: 0, 3/5 | Lyl: 7, 3/5)
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Post by Nerius on Apr 5, 2021 15:33:53 GMT -6
[Ianthe - Name - 1]
After a bit of time, the water in the bowel had adjusted to the temperature of the outside water, and Nerius submerged the bowel, allowing Ianthe to swim out out if she wanted to. The little fish seemed startled at first, but after a moment, swam out and begun exploring the close by surroundings. The little inlet they were in wasn't large by any means, but seryn were quite tiny at that age.
Now for the actual training part, Nerius still wasn't sure how one trained a fish. He'd just.. do what he did for a land dwelling species? "Ianthe," he called out, but the little fish didn't respond. Not surprising, even sarane ignored the first call half the time, unless there was food. It wasn't like he could catch the seryn's attention with the scent of food though, so he tried again, "Ianthe." The fish was still far too interested in some shiny pebbles at the bottom of the pool.
(Nerius: 1/10) (Ianthe: Lv: 0, 4/5 | Lyl: 7, 4/5)
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Post by Nerius on Apr 5, 2021 15:50:08 GMT -6
[Ianthe - Name - 2]
Hm, maybe the fish was too distracted? His voice probably didn't travel far underwater, and he might need the seryn to at least be aware of him. "Ianthe," Nerius called again, this time splashing the water in front of himself. That caught the little fish's attention, and at first she startled, ducking behind a sunken log, before peeking out, and realizing who it was.
After a moment's pause, she swam over, looking up at him with curiosity. "Good fishie," it was a little odd to praise a fish, but it was probably a bit odd to praise most the things he trained. Nerius knew she'd only swum over because of the splash, but it would be helpful for her to learn food was involved, and he sprinkled a little fish food into the water. Ianthe spotted it immediately, and started nibbling it up with impressive speed. He hadn't put in much, and the food quickly disappeared.
(Nerius: 2/10) (Ianthe: Lv: 1, 5/10 | Lyl: 9, 5/10)
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Post by Nerius on Apr 5, 2021 15:52:34 GMT -6
[Ianthe - Name - 3] She was interested in hanging around now too, with the potential of food, Ianthe wasn't darting off to explore. She was still more interested in hunting up any bits of food she could find, so while she wasn't watching him, Nerius called again "Ianthe." She kept searching, so he called again, louder, "Ianthe." That caught her attention, and she swam back up and over to him. "Good fishie," Nerius sprinkled in a few more flakes, and the seryn went right for her snacks. He didn't add a lot, seryn were small at this age, and he didn't want to overfeed the fish. She kept looking around for any little bits after the large flakes were eaten, and once she wasn't finding any good sized flakes anymore, Nerius called her name again, "Ianthe." This time, she swam back over on the first try, and he sprinkled in some more flakes. "Good fishie."
(Nerius: 3/10) (Ianthe: Lv: 1, 6/10 | Lyl: 9, 6/10)
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Post by Nerius on Apr 5, 2021 16:15:49 GMT -6
[Ianthe - Name - 4]
As expected, the seryn went right to gobbling up the flakes. Some things were universal between land and sea, a love of food was one of those things. There were some creatures around the Labs that didn't need to eat, and Nerius wouldn't have known where to begun with training those. The seryn at least, even being a water creature, was pretty straight forward, and now it was just a matter of repeating things until she got it.
"Ianthe," Nerius called, loud enough to be heard underwater. The grotto was quite shallow, so he didn't need to be much louder than a normal speaking volume. The seryn swam up, even popping the top of her head out of the water to watch him. "Good fishie," Nerius praised the fish, and sprinkled in more flakes. She did seem to be picking up on things faster than his sarane did, even without holding up treats as an incentive.
(Nerius: 4/10) (Ianthe: Lv: 1, 7/10 | Lyl: 9, 7/10)
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Post by Nerius on Apr 5, 2021 16:33:42 GMT -6
[Ianthe - Name - 5]
Maybe the stories about seryn's intelligence were true, they could gain the ability to magically fly as adults, so clearly they weren't ordinary fish. Nerius had never worked with the species before, so he didn't have any first hand experience with the creatures. He didn't have a lot of experience with water creatures in general, a little with pliathors, and aquatic wiurn, if they counted. Seryn were pretty, but it was mostly the magical nature of the fish that had caught his interest.
"Ianthe," he called, once the bulk of the flakes were eaten, and the seryn popped her head out of the water to look at him again. Nerius sprinkled more flakes, "Good fishie." She seemed to be picking up on the command well, but Nerius repeated the process several more times, calling the name, then giving treats for a response. It didn't hurt to be through, and Ianthe didn't mind the training, especially since on her end it was pretty much just getting free food.
(Nerius: 5/10) (Ianthe: Lv: 1, 8/10 | Lyl: 9, 8/10)
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Post by Nerius on Apr 6, 2021 21:26:19 GMT -6
[Ianthe - Come - 1]
Now, what else did one train a fish? Sure they were more intelligent than a standard goldfish, but they were still limited by their biology. A fish couldn't exactly 'sit', and at this age Ianthe wasn't capable of leaving the water. There wasn't much in the way of battle training a tiny baby fish could learn, but he'd had obedience training in mind when he'd brought out the fish.
Hm, well, he'd managed to get Ianthe's attention enough to have her swim over when they'd first started, he could always do something simple like 'come'. He wouldn't even have to get in the water, he could walk around the edge of the pool and call the fish from there. That decided, Nerius stood up, and walked a few feet away from the seryn, staying next to the pool. "Ianthe, come," he called, gently splashing the surface of the water to catch the underwater creature's attention.
(Nerius: 6/10) (Ianthe: Lv: 1, 9/10 | Lyl: 9, 9/10)
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Post by Nerius on Apr 6, 2021 21:53:46 GMT -6
[Ianthe - Come - 2]
She didn't understand the words, but splashing in the distance meant Nerius had moved, and he'd been giving her food before. The little fish swum over, popping the top of her head out of the water, looking around for a moment before she spotted Nerius. "Good fishie," he praised, sprinkling in a few flakes. The seryn happily gobbled them up, darting around and seeming to be having a fun time catching the food. Or, maybe just eating the food, Nerius couldn't quite tell.
Nerius was starting to walk to a new location when he felt a few drops of rain land on his face. It had been mostly clear when they'd arrived, but the weather had turned quickly. Those clouds looked quite dark, and were probably thunderheads, and Nerius didn't really want to be out here, especially with a little fish, in the middle of a thunderstorm. It was a shame to interrupt the training so early, but at least they'd gotten something done. They could always come back when the weather was better, and Nerius scooped up the seryn into the bowel, and started heading home.
(Nerius: 7/10 +Added) (Ianthe: Lv: 2, 10/15 | Lyl: 11, 10/15 Noted)
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