Genetically alterd fish //..

I've read about them before and from what I gather they glow so long as water conditions are good, or was it the other way around? They were initially developped to basically test for water pollution, i.e. was it harmful.

It's not the same at all as dyed fish because they are born with that particular trait and nothing fancy or stressing is done to them. The initial parents would have been modified from the egg stage, so nothing hard on the fish there either.

IMO, there's nothing morally wrong with these fish. They were develloped with a good purpose in mind and the interest in the hobby field helps to decrease the overall cost of them. They're basically just fancy danios if I recall.

Ahh yes the danios... I have some, bought them as soon as I can. I like them, they are just as healthy as my other fish (danios), and so I am glad to have them. I'm not sure if a debate will form - but hope not, as this is frequently discussed and for the most part, we all know where everybody stands.

No, it isnt like dyeing fish.

I think a glow in the dark fish is dumb, but that is just my opinion

What is probably done is that they make a plasmid containing a gene fusion between an active promoter and the gene for luciferase (the firefly gene). This could be microinjected into eggs and then the offspring could be easily screened to find transgenics. Assuming that this DNA doesn't integrate into the genome somewhere that it isn't supposed to, these fish should be happy and healthy just as long as their wild type counterparts. This technology has been used for years in producing transgenic mice for study, and it has not been shown to adversely alter their life span (unless an oncogene or similar DNA is intentionally used). Hope this was clear...

happychem said:

I've read about them before and from what I gather they glow so long as water conditions are good, or was it the other way around? They were initially developped to basically test for water pollution, i.e. was it harmful.

Click to expand...

I think they glowed when the conditions were bad..... or I thought that's the way it was....

Yeah, me too. But that wouldn't make a whole lot of sense for hobby released fish, so I'm a little confused. Perhaps they have two different batches? Once the methods are set up, it's not too hard to change the plasmid being introduced.

true..... it would be like "a treat" to let your water get bad.... just to make them glow more......