Glo-fish Breeding

[justincguin]

Okay i know i just saw my male and female glo-fish spawn.. or atleast saw the male attempt to. I have them in with some neons in a 10gal. I have gravel as well. I'm wondering how or what i should do to save the eggs from getting eaten.. I don't think she has laid them yet, but it would be hard for me to see them anyway so what should i do?

 

[OohFeeshy]

Do a search for threads on breeding normal zebra danios. There's a few methods, so you can decide which you prefer.

 

[Lateral Line]

Glo-Fish should be genetically sterile, so in theory at least, should not be capable of producing viable spawnings.

 

[OohFeeshy]

That's not true actually, at least not for GM danios. The fish are being bred for research from the original few that had the genes inserted, if they had to modify each egg the cost would be horrendous.

 

[Butch]

Actually, that theory of glofish being sterile are thrown out. Glow danios are not sterile and some people have sucessfully bred with glofish. Maybe the first glofish few years ago are sterile then the sciencist decided to make them fertile because its easier to let the glofish breeding than forced to put jellyfish genetics in the zebrafish which its messy task. However you should never let them breeding since they are illegal to sell the fry to anyone in U.S. I know its just being g*y law but then why the glofish are fertile? Just don't let them overpopulating your aquarium and you can save 2 to 6 fry instead of 20 to 100 babies....just suggestions.

 

[OohFeeshy]

It isn't illegal either, you can't stop people breeding fish. They say they have no problems with you giving fry to friends, it's if you start breeding them and making money that should be theirs that they'll sue you.

Edit- Hrm, possibly not, I can't find the original bit I found this on. But still, they're unlikely to be able to do much (or even want to) unless you're making money off of them.

 

[Lateral Line]

One of the properties of the original "Glo-Fish", (the trade marked item), was that it was genetically sterile. It was for that reason that they were not deemed a threat and were allowed to be sold in certain places, (not in the EU - GM organisms are illegal). If true Glo-Fish are being bred, then the original terms of their legality are broken, and as such they would be illegal.

There is another fish, seen under various names, Red Danio etc., which appeared on the market a year or so back. These have, indeed, been bred, and the fry show the Red colouration indicating that the trait is genetic. The gene is implanted, and therefore the fish are GM and illegal in the EU. There is an article about them at PFK's website.

 

[OohFeeshy]

From the official GloFish website-

Do you have to add a fluorescence gene to every fish before it hatches?
No. Today's GloFish® fluorescent fish are bred from the offspring of fluorescent zebra fish that were originally developed several years ago. Each new GloFish® fluorescent fish inherits its unique color directly from its parents, maintains the color throughout its life, and also passes the color along to its offspring.

Which U.S. Federal governmental agencies have reviewed these fish?
We have submitted detailed information regarding our fish to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, which has jurisdiction over biotech animals, as they consider the added gene to be an animal drug. Consistent with the findings of scientists worldwide, the FDA, working in coordination with the United States Department of Agriculture and United States Fish & Wildlife Service, found no evidence that our fluorescent zebra fish pose any more threat to the environment than wild-type zebra fish. If you would like to read the FDA statement regarding our fish, please click here.

They've never been sterile as far as I can tell. I believe you are thinknig of GM medaka, which I think are sterile, but I don't think these are on general sale even in the US.

 

[helterskelter]

You can breed them but you cant sell them!!!!!

http/www.fishforums.net/content/forum/182312/Glofish-/

I asked directly to Azoo and thats what they said

 

[Butch]

I still don't get it that why they made glofish fertile but illegal to sell fry? Zebra danios are easy to breed so glofish shouldn't have problems with it. But just don't mix the glofish with normal danios or else it can endangered to the zebra danio's pure genes. GM medaka are only green colored while GM zebras have different colors. I think this is stupid law for sell fry when the glofish are so fertile. Ugh. I also asked the glofish company and they said its illegal to sell glofish fry. So you can let your glofish breeding but you can't sell their fry, that's it.

 

[OohFeeshy]

The medaka do come in all sorts of colours actually, if you look on the Azoo website you can see they do much more than making fish green and glowy.

They didn't make them fertile, they just are. They're exactly the same as normal zebra danios, just a different colour. Think of them like gold danios- just another colour form.

 

[Butch]

Whatever...in my option that glofish are not same fish as normal zebra fish and the glow genetic are not natural. Gold, leopard and longfin are kinda of natural but glofish just happend to be have an extra genetic code of GM which normal zebra fish don't have. So they may same species but the parents of the first glofish don't carried the GM genes. It will hurt the normal zebra danio population, even they are not endangered species if we let glofish breeding with zebra danios. What happen if someone sell normal fry with the recessive GM genes to local pet shop? Now I'm scared. Glofish are very different fish with lots of special rules and laws. That's my option.

 

[OohFeeshy]

The trait is dominant (according to the company)- you couldn't 'pollute' the wild-type genes as wherever the gene is present, the fish would 'glow'. In fact, it's the opposite way around- breed two heterozygotes together and you'd get 25% wild type out of it.

 

[Butch]

I don't see the real proof about the GM genetic being dominate if its crossed to the normal zebra danios. I don't trust the company of glofish. The glofish can pollute the zebra danio genes. How I know is that I had my buddy who's raising them with longfin zebras and he got half batch of normal fry and half batch of glofish. So glofish can pollute zebra danio genes.

 

[pica_nuttalli]

Butch, I'm not certain that you really understand how "genetic pollution" works. I'll try an itemized approach.

1. Glofish are just genetically modified zebra danios
2. Glofish glow because of a single gene sequence
3. Either a fish has this gene or it doesn't
4. If a fish has this gene, then it is a Glofish
5. If it does not have this gene, then it is a zebra danio
6. The glow gene is dominant
7. If a fish has two copies of the glow gene, then it will glow brightly
8. If a fish has one copy of the glow gene, then it will glow dully
9. If a fish has no copies of this gene, then it is a zebra danio

Because Glofish are zebra danios, the only risk of genetic pollution is of a type that produces more Glofish. You will never have a situation where two normal-looking zebra fish will produce Glofish fry.

Also, while Glofish are not sterile, they are less fertile than standard zebra danios. Thus any Glofish introduced to a wild population of zebra danios will be out-bred by the zebras. Additionally, the bright color of any Glofish fry would make them more vulnerable to predators. Thus any Glofish would be naturally selected out of a wild population of zebra danios.

Really, if you think about it, the situation of Glofish versus zebra danios is almost exactly the same as that of long-finned Betta splendens versus wild-type Betta splendens... (except for the jellyfish genes, of course)