GloFish: Fluorescent Pet Fish

1. Justin
   September 16th, 2007 at 1:04 pm

   Coming to an environmentally devastated area near you!

   I know some people will lament this, but I think its really cool that they can use these to detect pollutants. Reminds me of the Canaries for the mines.

2. Fresh
   September 16th, 2007 at 1:39 pm

   At least it's not painted fish. The dyes kill the fish within a couple of months, if not less.

   But since this is a gene, it seems interesting... though as a fish person myself, I'm not so sure quite yet. I'll wait around until I know it's not actually harming the fish (hippie, treehugger, etc., yeah, I know); I've been wanting some danios in my tank anyways.

3. Mr.Jamos
   September 16th, 2007 at 1:50 pm

   What will happen when they reproduce? Since it's just ejected into the fish and not any changed DNA I would guess the offspring would go back to normal again.

4. MoniA
   September 16th, 2007 at 2:20 pm

   Nope, the offspring are just like the parents and it doesn't seem to hurt the fish at all. In fact the color gene is dominate and if they mate with a regular danio the babies will be flourescent(so I've read). I read somewhere on a fish forum that they've been around since the 50's. A lady getting out of the hobby gave me some and I love them. They are really bright and just as hardy as regular zebra danios. I do care about the environment but I see no risks with these, so right I have no problem with keeping these fish. I'd never ever buy a tatooed fish.

5. Blizzi
   September 16th, 2007 at 3:13 pm

   As long as it's safe (for the fish and us) it's pretty awesome

6. Chris
   September 16th, 2007 at 3:26 pm

   testing

7. Chris
   September 16th, 2007 at 3:28 pm

   seems that we cannot copy URL anymore in the comments.

   try this with www in front

   .businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_03/b3967111.htm

8. ted
   September 16th, 2007 at 3:29 pm

   What's wrong with the incredible variety you can already get in tropical fish?

   At least when we've killed off all our boring natural fish, we'll have these pretty toys - er, fish - to distract us.

9. Stacyj
   September 16th, 2007 at 3:41 pm

   Am I the only one to read this and think, "gosh, I wish -I- could glow in the dark, too!" ... ?

10. torrance
    September 16th, 2007 at 3:43 pm

    In Michigan it is illegal to own these fish. The idiots in the state legislature were afraid that these fish, because of their bright colors, would compete with our very cold water natives. As if they could survive here, and as if the bright colors would make them less conspicuous.

11. MoniA
    September 16th, 2007 at 4:16 pm

    In Newzeland they busted people for owning these and killed the fish.

    http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/pfk/pages/item.php?news=1327

12. MoniA
    September 16th, 2007 at 4:17 pm

    I meant New Zealand. Gosh my typng is bad

13. pugman
    September 16th, 2007 at 4:46 pm

    Banned in Michigan too, for the idiotic reason that the bright colors might help the fish out-compete the drab natives. Out compete at what? Dying?

14. just a guy
    September 16th, 2007 at 5:23 pm

    I know some people are freaked out about genetic manipulation, but I think it's pretty darn cool. After all, all technology is scary if you think of the 'bad' things it can be used for.

    Anyhow, I have to wonder when genetic manipulation will be available for people? Perhaps not as crazy as making you glow, but lets say.... getting rid of diabetes? lactose intolerance? Bad teeth? Acne? Or just changing your natural hair / eye color? Hrm..

15. grunwald
    September 16th, 2007 at 5:39 pm

    I've had these as pets before - they're just modified zebra danios, and just have a colored tint in regular lighting. They seemed to be pretty hearty as far as survival goes, and you should get 10-20 for optimal effect.

16. Daniel Kim
    September 16th, 2007 at 6:00 pm

    I had a few of these. They do not show the fluorescence unless they are exposed to UV Light. It's not really easy to get UV to penetrate the aquarium, so there was not much of a glow for me.

    They can't have been around 'since the 50's', as MoniA said, since the technology did not exist then. The Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) was not discovered until the 90's, I think.

    Remember: Fluorescence means that they absorb light at one wavelength, and then re-emit it at another. Luminescence is when they create their own light. The jellyfish that has the GFP gene actually produces a blue light through a chemical reaction. The blue light is then absorbed by GFP to create the green glow that they are known for. This was a big surprise (and seems to be a bit of a roundabout way to make light) when the gene was isolated, since it did not encode a protein that emits light, just one that converts it.

17. MoniA
    September 17th, 2007 at 8:02 am

    Where does it say that they are illegal in Michigan? I live In MI and they are sold by big chain petstores all over. The glofish official site says that they are legal in every state except Calif. I haven't seen any of the green variety in stores so far. The yellow and orange ones are not very coloful at all in my opinion. I have platys brigher then them.
    http://glofish.com/california.asp
    Daniel, maybe they weren't around since the 50's. That's just what I read on some fish forums. They said a scientist tried to make the organs glow in order to view them working and to his surprise the whole fish glowed.
    My fish are bright pink in any light but they don't really glow unless the flourescent aquarium lights are on. The blacklight has to be very close to the tank and the room darkened for them to glow in the dark.

18. Kel-C
    February 26th, 2008 at 10:31 pm

    I bought 3 of these 2nite, pink, orange and eletric yellow, Howdo yu get them to glo? I hv them in a 10 gal tank all by themselves... any ideas?

19. jonzie
    March 12th, 2009 at 2:22 pm

    the reason they dont have any thing like this for humans is for ethical reasons ( u can just guess at what arguements lay there) and also because the person will live like that for the rest of the lives and there is no possible way to change it back. But DNA is used to make insulin. Insulin used to come from horse blood and caused complications etc. due to the antibodies fighting off the foreign horse insulin.Now human insulin is produced in transgenic bacteria that have had the human gene that produces insulin inserted in them, therefore human insulin is now readily available.

    Sorry so long but for ppl having problems with getting the fish to glow try buying a black light.

20. baddog52
    October 7th, 2009 at 11:42 am

    I own 3 one of each color they are so cool not only that when you buy them a portion of the prophit goes to the scientist who created them get some money to continue the reacearch

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