Steve113

Fun and interesting application of modern science, or unnatural abomination...?

What are your thoughts on GloFish? It's not tattooing, not acid bathing. Gm modification at an embriotic stage.

I have looked around but couldn't find a thread like this one so, what do we think?

For anyone who doesn't know what a GloFish is - It's a Genetically modified Zebra Danio. The eggs are carefully injected at a very early stage with DNA from a species of bioluminescent Jellyfish.

The original Idea is that the fish would glow under stress (like the Jellyfish naturally do). This would be useful as they could use the fish to detect pullutants in water samples - as poor water quality would cause stress.

They found that the fish glowed continually without the stress factor. These very quickly became popular with aquarium owners. and they are now marketed exclusively as GlowFish.

Linky link:

http://glofish.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glofish

Please read about them before blasting the idea as cruel. I think the idea is quite brilliant, harmless too. The fish are able to breed and are healthy and even pass on their bioluminescence to their offspring!

Unfortunately the stringent EU regulations state that they are illegal to own, breed, or sell here.

just immagine a tank full of "Glow in the dark" schooling fish...

TFA101

Oh boy, a favorite and common topic among us Fishlore-ians. Dont get me wrong I love danios and their glowing counterparts, I'm just not taking the fact that they've been genetically modified or however you want to put it. They are however used for a good cause when first created though, that I found amazing. However, I'm considering adding a couple to my new tank, still unsure of what to do with my in-coming 50 G

Steve113

I would love to get a couple. Just no way to get them here. You should come and smuggle some over for me!

Tavel

we did talk about them once before, I remember musing about whether they know they're the wrong color, or just think the other zebras are wrong. Like what would you do if you saw a neon green dude walking down the street...what would he think of you?

other than that, I see nothing wrong with it. we eat genetically modified foods and selective breeding in animals and plants is actually a form of genetic engineering...so there's really no point in denouncing one form but idolizing another.

they're expensive though, anyone selling them has to pay royalties. They're like $7-$10 per fish depending on where you get them.

sirdarksol

There is already a discussion regarding this in Hot Topics.

Alessa

here is the link
http://www.fishlore.com/fishforum/mi...ish-truth.html

sirdarksol

Thanks. I hoped someone would do that. I was too lazy.

TFA101

oh i remember that one. what a big agruement I so innocently created

sirdarksol

You may have started it, TFA, but it took a master devil's advocate to keep it interesting.

TFA101

good point

Steve113

Thanks, I'll check it out.

Guess the topic's dead now though...

TFA101

but we can always reincarnate it

Angelika

I had some.... I bought 2 zebra danios along with some glo fish...2 red, 2 yellow and 2 orange,..... 2 died the first night, 2 died the 2nd night, and then I had a red and yellow for months.... the yellow one vannished and 3 months later so did the red one.... mmmmmmmmm so now I have none other than the zebra danio, who went missing for a week once and showed up later fat and healthy... I guess he was in my filter eating happily

charleston.kevin

I have 3 glofish..... Pyro, Therma and Helios

tanker83

whoa. I just read the entire thread at that link that alessa mentioned. if you have not yet read it...go read it. sirdarksol.... you are my hero. I agree with everything you said. P.S. Were you ever on the debating team in school?

sirdarksol

Nope, I wasn't. Actually, my debate abilities were formed after high school, in college classes. About half of my classmates were folks who didn't want to learn. They already "knew" everything, and didn't want to consider anything that might change their stance, so I learned to play Devil's Advocate and keep them hopping. These people didn't like me, but I, and others like me, made them think.

About half of the time, I'm not debating for a certain point, but rather testing the foundation of what people believe. For example: With GloFish, it's not that I'm against their existence or purchase. Rather, I was arguing against the very blaise attitude people have towards genetic engineering, as well as against the idea that someone is stupid because of their beliefs about nature. If some people believe that we are not meant to directly manipulate nature at the genetic level, I respect that belief, and I will argue in favor of them having that belief, just like I will argue in favor of the Amish having their beliefs about the nature of technology, even if I (obviously) disagree with them.

tanker83

yes. well you certainly made me think hard....

Butterfly

I think that was one of the purposes of our own Devils advocate Making people think is much more interesting than dictating what someone should believe.
Glofish actually breed true so I truly doubt they are still injecting their eggs with Jellyfish DNA. The ones I had didn't live as long as the regular Danios I had. Don't know if it was them or something else going on in the tank.
Just some thoughts
carol

sirdarksol

On a quasi-related note, Butterfly, do you know someone who has firsthand knowledge of the GloFish breeding for several generations? I've been curious if this company tried to preserve the rights to their creation by including a "suicide gene" (the young of a certain generation, usually second, are born infertile). I don't think they'd do it, because they hadn't originally planned on selling them as pets, but it's a bit of curiosity I've had.

Steve113

The company seems to be legit - So would they risk this? Would it be legal?

Butterfly

No I really don't This is where I got my info about them breeding.
http://www.glofish.com/about.asp
I set up a tank at work and my boss wanted company colors (blue and yellow. so I bought yellow glofish. They only lived a couple of weeks, I wasn't very happy with them. they just weren't as hardy as I'm used to Danios being.
Carol