Glo-fish

Swimfins

Swimfins

This is as good as it gets.
Sep 24, 2004
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Montreal Quebec Canada
community.webshots.com
I found a new LFS. ICK! About 50 bettas in plastic cups. One was actually dead and rotting in a white filmy soup. (I complained!)

Most of their stock tanks look very unclean compared to the place I normally go which is spotless.

However, they have glofish. 5 dollars each. Little bright pink neon long fin danios. They look like they've been nuked. I though these were experimental fish for testing water quality in sewage plants?
 
AFAIK, they are just that, but I've seen them available too - it was only once, quite a while ago. They're striking, it must have been tempting to pick some up (but from a shop like that I'd certainly want to quarantine a good long time!)
 
Check out www.glofish.com. The glofish for sale aren't for water testing. AFAIK, they're a proof-of-principle/money-making fish. I have no idea whether or not the scientists are making any progress in engineering the water testing kit. As a biologist, I've been tempted by the idea of keeping a genetic model at home, but I'm not so excited to put zebrafish in my peaceful tank. I do hope to find a store that sells them, though, so I can at least see them.
 
Was the store in Canada? I didn't think they could sell them in Canada. I am interested in seeing them in person. I've talked to my LFS about them and they said they've looked nothing like they're supposed too, but I've seen pictures of people's glofish that look like the company's PR pictures. From what you've said, it would seem that the fish you saw don't look the same either.
 
Kasakato said:
YUCK, Glo fish suck! Tell them to stop selling them.
Click to expand...
Kas, these aren't the same as painted fish. They're not harmed in any way, the 'glow' is a result of genetically splicing phosphors from jellyfish into their genes. AFAIK, their offspring would have the same 'glowing' colouration.
I'm not a huge fan of genetic manipulation, just wanted to point out that this isn't specifically harmful to the fish themselves.
Here's a link to an article on wetwebmedia about these little critters.
 
I went back today, they are labelled 'red glo-fish'. They are just a bright neon pink. I'm wondering if they aren't a wee bit dyed. I wasn't overly impressed. I was considering buying a pair, but I know after getting them home, I'd probably of said......"what the heck did I buy these for?" They look very unnatural although nice in a large school. I opted for 2 nice little killifish 'australe'. Nice bright orange coloring and its completely natural. I think it was a better choice.
 
They shouldn't be dyed. The color you're seeing is fluorescence (from red fluorescent protein or RFP). In theory, you should be able to get a light that has a really narrow wavelength output that would excite the RFP, but not really create a lot of light. Then the glofish should appear to glow red while just about everything else remains in darkness. In practice, that ain't gonna happen. Regardless, the wavelength that excites the RFP is also released by the sun and probably by most fluorescent lights (actually, now that I think about it, it should be somewhere in the green region, which isn't exactly what tank lights focus on, hmmm....perhaps not the best planning on their part) so you'll see some red glow from the fluorescence under normal lighting.
 
They aren't dyed at all. I got quite a few offspring and they grew up to be just as bright as their parents. I love the things. I was looking for something different and they're some of the nicest looking I found.
 
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