What about Glo-Fish??

**kyriele** · 01-06-2007, 04:13 AM

I have seen all the horrors of dyed fish. What is everyone's opinion on the Glo-Fish?? Although these are nothing more than Zebra Danios, they have been genetically altered to be bright red, orange and green. The first batch were injected with the fluorescent gene found in nature but the spawn are fluorescent from birth.

The purpose was noble enough: to detect pollutants. The fish who were fluorescent would start to glow when certain polluntants were detected. Even now, there are proceeds from the sale of the fish (approximately $5 per) that goes to more environmental research.

Just thought I'd stir the pot and get some opinions :)

www.glofish.com

**Severus** · 01-06-2007, 04:54 AM

I personally think the glofish look awesome. Such a bright fish, especially for freshwater. As for their genetics... that is highly debatabe because they are born like that...

**Incredulous_Ed** · 01-06-2007, 04:54 AM

Maybe they should spend the money they make on it to stop these dyed fish.
But then again, I have to agree with 100gw, they were born that way.

**Wallyfish** · 01-06-2007, 05:21 AM

I personally have no problem with this kind of genetic research. It is a moral/ethical/religious issue for some people; a similar thing to peoples opinions on abortion except to a lesser degree as it involves fish instead of people, so opinions are less strong about it. Asking people if they're against glo-fish is more along the lines of asking people if they are against genetic research/experimentation than the fish themselves. I don't have a problem with glofish as there are no health side effects. Perhaps if the fish were created for the sole purpose of marketing to people instead of as a environmentally safe tool to determine pollutants in the water my opinion would be different. I don't think that demand for bright colored fish warrants genetic experimentation/research. I personally think the story behind glo-fish adds to thier intrigue however. I'm against injecting fish with dyes. Those procedures poison and ultimately kill the fish.

**Fishguy2727** · 01-06-2007, 12:53 PM

I think thay are great fish, I have seven and will be adding more. A side-effect of environmental research, than I'm all for it.

**Abbeys_Mom** · 01-06-2007, 01:39 PM

Does anyone now if they are available in Canada yet? I know there was a temporary ban on them.

**Drumachine09** · 01-06-2007, 02:46 PM

Why are they banning them?

**Abbeys_Mom** · 01-06-2007, 03:25 PM

Environmental and ethical reasons. Anything imports coming into Canada need to be approved. I know there are some glo-fish here. There is a guy in the town of Tweed who got some before the ban. He breeds them, but isn't allowed to sell them till the ban is lifted. The ban was back in 2004.
Article from CBC

It's now 2007 and I haven't heard anything since.

**Severus** · 01-06-2007, 04:05 PM

Hopefully they dont ban them forever. you dont want to miss out on such a cool fish.

**kyriele** · 01-06-2007, 06:08 PM

Yup. Still banned here...and Australia...and everywhere else except the US where they were developed. I did put up the link to their site for info on them. I really like them personally. All the health, hardiness, etc of a regular zebra fish. And yes...the offspring are born with the fluorescent gene :)

The reason that Canada is so against them is this: they are concerned about them being released into the wild and are unsure of the effect it would have on the ecosystem. The research company who supplies them has assured everyone (and it was a good enough explanation to the US government so I'm unsure why it isn't for others!! :( ) that they ARE Zebra Danios, a tropical fish, and they can't survive in our waters. If there was going to be any effects from these fish being let loose in Canadian streams, etc, we would have seen it decades ago with the regular Zebras. They are absolutely no different in any way except their colour.

I live in Windsor, ON right across the bridge from Detroit and I'm seriously contemplating having my in-laws (yup...that American husband :) drag a small school over for me. I don't intend on breeding, selling, etc any of them and I would NEVER release ANY fish into the Detroit River!!!!!! Heck..I won't even let my kids go swimming on our beaches and they aren't BREATHING those waters!!