Yes or No?

Dyed and tattooed fish, NO!

This however I don't really have big issues with. I don't want one though. Cows are modified to produce more milk, and meat, as are pigs and sheep. Various other things are too and we readily accept that. Whats the difference?
 
zoo york 207 said:
NEVER! i dispise dyed fish that is one thing that really ticks me off!

People should really read the article first or atleast the very first sentance... "No, these fish are not painted. They are genetically modified laboratory creations that possess new genes... " or maybe even the other poster who commented about them being dyed and was already corrected. Not yellin at you or anything, but did make me chuckle.

Being somewhat a man of science I think this is interesting, but wether or not you want one in your aquarium is simply your personal choice. Should we be manipulating genes and created new species? Well that is a whole different debate that i wont get much into. I personally dont see a problem if the creations are perfectly healthy. Unless a huge amount of effort is put into studdying thier ability to be released into the wild I think they should not since that is usually a bad idea... but with responsible fishkeepers there shouldnt be a problem keeping them in aquariums. There is a ton of scientific work done on small creatures, be it mice or fish they all could be important to science. And its not really are place to say they should be focusing on more important things because I am sure that 'science' didnt come to halt and focus all efforts on this particular glow in the dark fish. We dont know what all knowledge they gained from this or what other things they could have been doing. I dont know where I would 'draw the line' when it comes to genetic engineering but what if some asteroid crashed into Earth and unleashed some virus that threatened to wipe out the human race but perhaps genetic engineering was the only way to survive? Do you think it would be attempted if possible or would we all agree that wouldnt be natural and better off letting the human race die off? I dont want to start any debate, just food for thought.
 
I am vegitarian Chickieepooh2u so I don't accept them. I think I am vegetarian for a few reasons, one is because the animals have all their genetics modified. I only like to buy vegies from places where they aren't using poisons and pesticides etc. All the stuff they cram into the supermarket food realy freaks me out. There is often stuff on tv saying how much bad it is doing to our bodies and shortening our lives.

I do suppose thought that doing proper research and being able to cure cancer, nerve damage and back bones is a good thing.

loaches r cool; that was a huge paragraph which I just skim read important words out of it. Who has read it word for word? n/o. I get the gist though. If we were to let nature take it's course though without inteferance, wouldn't our planet be in a whole lot better shape than it is now? Wouldn't it last a lot longer than it will at this rate? There's my thought for food. :)
 
dorris said:
If we were to let nature take it's course though without inteferance, wouldn't our planet be in a whole lot better shape than it is now? Wouldn't it last a lot longer than it will at this rate? There's my thought for food. :)

Yes, the rest of the planet would probably be better, but we wouldnt be here to talk about it. The simply fact that we humans, being intelligent and technologically advanced, have irreversibly changed the world forever. Not saying we can't do better but the fact is the world will never be the same...
 
hmm

dorris said:
I am vegitarian Chickieepooh2u so I don't accept them. I think I am vegetarian for a few reasons, one is because the animals have all their genetics modified. I only like to buy vegies from places where they aren't using poisons and pesticides etc. All the stuff they cram into the supermarket food realy freaks me out. There is often stuff on tv saying how much bad it is doing to our bodies and shortening our lives.


Umm, if you are a vegetarian you are still eating GM products. GMing started with fruits and vegies way before it started with animals. If you are eating Organic crops that haven't had pesticides sprayed on them, it is exactly because they are GM'd. Ever eat corn? Wear clothes made from cotton? How about tomatoes? It is pretty much impossible to get any of the above 3 that aren't GM'd in the US. Organic or non organic. It is actually much easier, though more expensive, to get non GM'd meat.
 
hmm

oh and as for the discussion, not my cup of tea but I have no issue with it. Probably be a big hit with the raver crowd :p:

As for why, I know we like to imagine scientists as being at for the betterment of man, but the two top driving forces behind scientific innovation are War and Money.
 
I think this is a pretty cool concept actually. They didn't make glowing fish because they thought it would be more worthwhile that a cure for cancer. The genetic research that went into this has almost definitely told scientists a great deal about the nature of molecular biology. They can then make some advances in other areas. For instance, Down Syndrome is caused by a trisomy (tripling) of the 21st chromosome in the human genome. You can see this very early on in development if you karyotype the embryo. Who's to say that research into adding a gene (which makes a fish glow) could not be applied to this problem. Scientists might be able to determine a safe way to remove the extra chromosome (a bunch of genes effectively).

And just a random thought, but if these glowing fish are genetically viable (can reproduce with no problems), couldn't the company that produced them start selling them to pet stores and use the proceeds to further genetic research?
 
Yoemen said:
Umm, if you are a vegetarian you are still eating GM products. GMing started with fruits and vegies way before it started with animals. If you are eating Organic crops that haven't had pesticides sprayed on them, it is exactly because they are GM'd. Ever eat corn? Wear clothes made from cotton? How about tomatoes? It is pretty much impossible to get any of the above 3 that aren't GM'd in the US. Organic or non organic. It is actually much easier, though more expensive, to get non GM'd meat.

To be fair, when we talk about GM'd food products, we are talking about things that have been modified more by massive amounts of selective breeding than by actually going in and messing around on the molecular level. Your tomatoes have a thicker skin (better for transportation) than their predocessors. They didn't go in and add a gene, they just selected the tomatoes with the thickest skins naturally and bred them together. After a few generations, you end up with tomatoes with a much thicker skin than the parental generation. The statement about organics being GM'd is essentially true. They select for the strongest plants that will be able to survive without pesticides and whatnot. You couldn't take seeds from a non-organic fruit and grow them organically unless you isolated them in some kind of greenhouse or whatnot where bugs and everything could not get to them.

Messing around on the molecular level is probably used in some instances (I'm far from an expect, so feel free to prove me wrong.), and it is probably not far off in terms of widespread use. But for the moment, always keep in mind that a "genetically modified" organism could just be something that has be selectively bred to an incredibly high degree.
 
heh

well on the tomatoes that is true, but in regard to corn and cotton it is not. Cotton not so much but nearly 100% of all corn sold for human consumption in the US is BT Corn. That is Bacylus therengensus. It is a bacteria that has been added to the corn plant genetically that kills caterpillars and worms that attempt to feed on the corn plant. And yes, it is used in organic production heavily.
 
i had some glofish way back, and let me tell you they are incredible! a large school of them makes the entire tank POP! especally placed within a heavily planted tank. It's one of the few fish that can match the color intensity of saltwater species and best of all it's zebra danio which is the most hardy fish around.

Definitly a good thing for the hobbist, as the fish is not subjected to any abuse.

For those of you complaining about been "unnatural", open your eyes and look around, how many fish you buy are NOT the result of selective/artificial breeding? how is that any different, i would say the genetic zebra danios are more natural than those artificially bred guppies, fancy goldfish, cichlids etc.

You have no problem with them but not the glofish? the irony...
 
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