Glo Fish

[madmom]

OK I admit I have alot of time on my hands. I surf the internet and came across reference to Glo fish. Checking further I found this

http/www.glofish.com/default.asp

What is your opinion of genetically engineered fish?

 

[Bloo]

I know this topic discussing dyed fish as well, but there is a glofish discussion in there too.

 

[fish_fetish65]

they look just like zebra danios that have been dyed red!

 

[madmom]

Thanks Bloo . I missed that one.

 

[OohFeeshy]

Hmm... Well, since the 'whether they're sterile' debate is raging, I can't really say. The main problem (since only the eggs are injected with the genes, and some I'd imagine are bred) is Eastern fish-farms getting wind of their popularity and trying to copy them with 'proper' dyed fish, which, while the look etc. won't be the same, they will be similar for considerably cheaper. This sort of thing has already happened for things like cories (you get dyed albions, but there are perfectly good orange, red and green natural colour morphs), tailess fish (it is thought there is a gene that causes no caudal, but most available have had their tails lopped off) and others.

 

[bettas4me]

My local Walmart had some glofish yesterday. They are very interesting and beautiful, but I thought they were dyed and decided not to get any for my community tank. I started researching them on the internet and found the same website as madmom....It's interesting that there is a whole website about them!

 

[andywg]

I have no problem with them. They were created as part of an experiment into genetic modification. I see this area, together with stem cell and nano-tech as the future of sciene and medicine.

Remember this is not dyed fish, though the risks as Feesh pointed out are very true. Considering how conspicuous they are, I doubt they would gain an advantage in the wild over existing species, so no real problems like releasing snakeheads in Texas.

 

[mpoulton12345]

"In recent years the Zebra Danio has been genetically modified by introducing jellyfish genes, amongst others, to exhibit a glowing red colour"

 

[annka5]

I agree that genetic research is going to become progressively more important and is valid research in many instances. However, I don't see how selling genetically-modified fish in WalMart helps increase sceinces' ability to understand genes or cure ailments caused by defective genes. Yes, creating the fish did, but producing them as a commercial venture is not the same thing. What aquarists may discover keeping them in the tank would be unlikely to be sceintifically useful as the situation would lack a control. I also don't believe the commercial revenue from these fish is then used to fund more genetic research.

 

[juliehainsworth]

Someone said about these fish being sterile? According to the website it says that they no longer inject the eggs and that these fish are offspring from previous ones, not sure how true it is?

I personally dont agree with what they have done or are doing with these fish! Surely there are better ways for them to test for chemicals in water systems? It's just another excuse to play God personally IMO! They have other means to do it so they should use those first!

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Fish that have been tampered with in such an unnatural way don't really appeal to me- the way i see it, its not the same as say, breeding a guppy so it has better genes or breeding a betta so it becomes more blue, with glofish there is no selective breeding involved- they would simply not occur in nature as they are, no chance.

Alhough i suppose, even with selective breeding, there are many fish that have been selectively bred that i would not even buy (i.e think Bubble/celestial eye goldfish for example).

In general though, i'd rather have natural danios in my tank rather than glofish. If i saw some glofish that were up for adoption, i would probably get them, but i would not spend money buying them.
Actually, i would find it quite spooky seeing glowing fish in my tank at night

 

[Majjie]

I don't see much difference in breeding fancy tail guppies, or colour forms of Bettas and breeding these glofish - except that the glofish might have some practical use in detecting pollution. The guppies and bettas are bred purely because we humans think they look nice.

The glofish will have been selectively bred when they were first being developed - in the same way as normal fish strains are - it's only the way their genes were changed that was slightly different.

The web site clearly says that they breed normally - but that they'd be at a competitive disadvantage in the wild (glowing in the dark isn't a good way to hide from predators ). The expression of the gene also uses up some extra fishy resources making these fish more delicate that ordinary zebra danios and more susceptible to illness.

Like Tokis-Phoenix though, I don't like the idea of pink fluoresecent fish

 

[andywg]

The creation of these fish as a commercial venture will further science. The first big breakthrough is the ability to do something. The second big breakthrough is the ability to do it repeatedly at a cost that can allow them to be attained without the expense of vast amounts of resources.

 

[confusion]

I'm happy that humanity has found a way to splice in the glow-in-the-dark gene. Now maybe they could take up less important ventures like making ich resistant fish, or fish that tolerate ph changes more easily. Then again, those would be advantages and could cause normal fish to die off.

 

[falcodarkzz]

I'm happy that humanity has found a way to splice in the glow-in-the-dark gene. Now maybe they could take up less important ventures like making ich resistant fish, or fish that tolerate ph changes more easily. Then again, those would be advantages and could cause normal fish to die off.

Who cares if your fish gets itch!
They are only a few pounds to get another!