Glow in the dark fish in the U.S.A. yay!

[bgraber]

$12.50, Ouch!

 

[andyt_uk]

i thought they were going on sale from 5th january - are you sure the lfs isnt selling dyed fish and ripping people off even more saying it is a glofish

 

[Opcn]

Tell your LFS to shut the darn uv light off if you keep any fish under uv 8 hours a day it will respond poorly. your only supposed to do it for about 1 hour a day and depending on how long the fish have been in the lfs's tanks they could just be recovering from a stressful situation.


Opcn

 

[Landlocked]

I still can't actualy see buying one of thses fish (especialy for $12.50)

I agree. Are they really worth it?

 

[William]

I have only one thing to say on the subject.

Not in my tanks!!!

 

[William]

By the way how about the new glo-mice they're bringing out??

 

[rsz]

william, are those mice for real? cos they just look a bit gross!! i can't imagine anyone would want a mouse like that, real or not!

 

[Lateral Line]

>>> i can't imagine anyone would want a mouse like that, real or not!

People will buy a fish like that, why not a mouse - same argument really.

PS. I don't think they are real, but I can guarantee there is someone somewhere thinking about the commercial potential of GM mammals as pets right now.

 

[rsz]

>>> i can't imagine anyone would want a mouse like that, real or not!

People will buy a fish like that, why not a mouse - same argument really.

i understand what you're saying , but to a lot of people (people who don't keep fish... ) fish are boring and the only way to make them 'more exciting' is to make them even more colourful (although lots of fish are already colourful ). however, with mice you get the cuteness factor. i don't think the people who want glofish would want a mouse with bright green feet, or a puppy with blue paws. that's just how life is . some people just don't see the interest in fish, because you can't stroke and cuddle them . i know that most of my friends couldn't care less about fish being killed through the dyeing process , but if they found out about horses being injected with purple ink to make them look pretty, they'd be outraged! sad as it is, that's how a lot of people feel...


another point - on the glofish website, i didn't read anything about the fact that zebra danios are schooling fish, and that you need at least 4 for them to be happy (thats $50 for 4!!).

 

[FrankSlapperinni]

The glofish wern't for sale, and I doubt my LFS would ever sell them (they are very good people) the employee I talked to their said they were only getting them to see what the hype was. and Opcn, I asked them about the light, its only on for 1 hour a day.

 

[Opcn]

I'm glad to here that they dont live in a UV prison tell me did there sides look messed up in normal light? I don't think that they can be for sale yet but they may have just told you that hey would not be sold to avoid confrontation. While they may be expensive they are the cheepest flourescent fish available. Marine aquariums cast alot of money where as fresh water do not and fresh water fish aren't naturalythat colourful.

as far as the mice goI think it is a bad idea unless they are preserilized because rodents breed like rodents and you could easily get a self sustaining colony in little to no time.

Opcn

 

[FrankSlapperinni]

as far as the mice goI think it is a bad idea unless they are preserilized because rodents breed like rodents and you could easily get a self sustaining colony in little to no time

And why is it Ok for zebra danios to do that?

 

[Brattina88]

Everyone keeps making good points, but I won't have any in my tanks.
There was a big article in the local newspaper yesterday.
They are going to be for sale at my fav private owned lps here for $6.50 "before the holiday rush"

 

[Opcn]

Zebra danios have only formed one self sustaining population in the us and that was for a few years in oregon after a large number of them escaped from a pet fish farm. Where as two mice can create hundreds in a year and it's not that they are transgenic that bothers me it's that they will attract more people to the mouse keeping hobby and lead to the depleation of biodeversity in mice. I'm against the whole mouse keeping industry all together. Pet mice are like farmed salmon in that there is very little genetic deversity amonge them. (Farmed salmon is a horible industry) when the mice escape from there cages (and some will) they will bread amongst themselfs and then with other mice and dilute the specialized genes of the mouse keepers area just like when farmed salmon escaped in to the wild.

Opcn

 

[William]

opcn I'm just wondering one question. I wouldn't buy glofish myself simply because I don't like them. But my question is one purely out of interest. You talk of lack of gene pool in mice, and this is one thing which I can't quite understand as being your concern. Obviously a lack of genetic diversity in a population spells trouble - you don't need to tell me that I'm a biologist.

However these glo-fish, I would like to know how many initially had this glowing gene inserted into themselves. From a commercial point of view, the chances are as few as possible, and then they simply bred offspring with offspring to bring up a large population of these 'glow fish'. Surely this spells trouble in the future?? I doubt the rate of success was very high for inserting the gene, it rarely is, and so I doubt the numbers involved initially were large. Therefore the gene pool for these glo-fish is severely limited.