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Genetically Modified Fish - For Sale

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Anonymous

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Not sure if these are true cryptids as they were created by science, but I doubt the British museum has anythig with their DNA structure, so I'm putting it in the crypto section.

Scientists in Asia have been putting luminous jellyfish DNA in zebra danios, consequently these fish glow in the dark. They are meant to be hitting the UK shops soon. I think they were "bread" to indicate changes in water pH, but are now going to be available for sale.

I know most people think they're only fish, so it doesn't matter, but it really winds me up. If there was a scientific reason for creating these - fine, but they should be left in the laboratories - not sold on. Where do we end, dog/cat hybrids available from your local animal shelter?
 
Well, at least since they are fish they don't have that much chance of escaping into the wild. At least untill the day they give them legs.

But correct me if I'm wrong but those zebra-fish, isn't that the ones that already glow in the dark naturally? My brother had some of those.
 
Dye Injected fish have been for sale in the UK for a while now. The ugly Parrot Cichlid (which is a man made hybrid between the Severum and another Cichlid which has not yet been 100% determined yet) are a prime example of this. These fish are naturally a green/brown colour yet they are readily available in stores with colours ranging from vibrant red to indigo & flourescant green (Jellybean is the common name for these). The vast majority of Guppies now available are injected with dye to make them mor 'colourful' as are a lot of the standard 'bread & butter' species that are familiar to non-aquarist & aquarists alike. Even your common Corydoras are not safe with 'albino' strains now injected with a red blotch (similar to the Japanese flag) available to buy.

I have heard about the Danio's & the genetic modification to alert for pollution, and I sorely hope that they don't come into the country.

I just hope that the stores that stock these fish close down as they obviously don;t care for the welfare of their stock.
 
Zebrafish are often used in genetics as being representative of the vertebrate family (between Xenopus toads and Mus the mouse as a model species). I guess they have taken the GFP gene (fluorescent green protein from the jellyfish Aequoria victoria and stuck it into the fish genome. This wont make it glow in the dark but it will emit light of a different wavelength if excited with light of a lower wavelength. Maybe they have altered the GFP properties (possible) to make it glow at night when excited by light not visible to the human eye.
I dont think its right to sell these either, and i hope its just a mistaken report. Ican see them getting flushed and then the gene ending up in the wild population
 
barndad said:
Ican see them getting flushed and then the gene ending up in the wild population
But will the gene remain in the wild population? Only if it confers a reproductive advantage. If t makes its bearers more easily seen and likely to be eaten, it will be weeded out quite rapidly.

If it's merely neutral as regards breeding success, then random mutations will tend to delete it, since there is no advantage to repairing or maintaining it.

If the gene came from jellyfish in the first place, then it is already in the wild anyway, and there are mechanisms by which genes can cross the species barrier. (I'll go find a link... Here! The rest of this website makes interestingreading too.)
 
Yeah, most GM species will proibably die in the wild. They are made for human purposes and aren't very good for the plant itself. Like roses without thorns, they probably won't last long out there.
 
Darren Wilson said:
I just hope that the stores that stock these fish close down as they obviously don;t care for the welfare of their stock.
If people cared they'd already have closed. There's a shop near me sells red parrots and lots of types of injected corys. Most people buy them without realising the pain that the injected fish go through, and apparantly the colour fades after a few weeks/months. I thought that the red parrot fish was 'natural' colouration though, but maybe you've explained why there are also green parrot fish available.

Originally posted by Xanatic
But correct me if I'm wrong but those zebra-fish, isn't that the ones that already glow in the dark naturally? My brother had some of those.

No, zebra fish should be white/yellowish with blue stripes and short fins, but long finned have been selectively bread.
 
Okay, maybe it wasn't zebra-fish. What are they called the small ones you buy in groups that are almost translucent but has a stripe that sort of glows in the dark?

I must say I've never heard of coloured fish before. It does sound quite bad. But I'm guessing feeding them carrot pieces could do something there.
 
Xanatic said:
What are they called the small ones you buy in groups that are almost translucent but has a stripe that sort of glows in the dark?
Probably either neon tetra or glowlight tetra.
 
Xanatic said:
Okay, maybe it wasn't zebra-fish. What are they called the small ones you buy in groups that are almost translucent but has a stripe that sort of glows in the dark?

They are Zebra Danios (I read something about this in a recent PFK magazine) that have been modified in this way as a means of detecting pollution in their natural countries in Asia such as Sri Lanka etc.
 
Well, this was back in the eighties when nobody did much GM.
 
well some ppl just want sum funky fish, and thats cool...but how would WE like it if some smarty pants fish injected colour dye and jelly fish DNA into us for amusement???
just a thought...:rolleyes:
 
Xanatic said:
Well, at least since they are fish they don't have that much chance of escaping into the wild. At least untill the day they give them legs.
Didn't pick up on this the first time that I read it, but there is every chance.

In St Helens, England there's an area called the Hotties, the areas been redeveloped, so I don't know if they are still there but there used to be a colony of guppies which lived around the hot water outlets of a factory. Someone must have found them to breed faster than rabbits and got rid of their excess by putting them there. People used o fish for them with nets to put in their own aquaria.
No reason why this couldn't happen with the zebra danios.
 
Yeah, I found out a bit later that there are apparently a lot that flush their aquarium fish and such.

Though guppies, I think they lived naturally here. Before people started putting them in aquariums.
 
Red Dalek said:
Didn't pick up on this the first time that I read it, but there is every chance.

In St Helens, England there's an area called the Hotties, the areas been redeveloped, so I don't know if they are still there but there used to be a colony of guppies which lived around the hot water outlets of a factory. Someone must have found them to breed faster than rabbits and got rid of their excess by putting them there. People used o fish for them with nets to put in their own aquaria.
No reason why this couldn't happen with the zebra danios.

There also used to be a lot of South American Cichlids there as well due to the increased temperature of the water. The Cichlids used to feature quite regularly in angling matches along the canal there, almost to the rate of 1:5 with the Roach & Gudgeon!!!
 
UPDATE

There's an article about GM danios in June's 'Today's Fishkeeper'. Apparantly they change colour with the pH of the water, so they possibly could be used by breeders to continually monitor the water quality for fish such as rams who require certain acidic conditions. : (My conjecture)

Also, on einstein.tv there was a report that a rhesus monkey has been created carrying a jellyfish DNA gene, the first known GM primate. Humans next I suppose.
 
That thing with the monkey happened a while ago. I think they called it ANDy or so. Bad pun. Did they find out wether they had been succesful as it seemed they weren't too sure at the time.
 
Re: UPDATE

Red Dalek said:
There's an article about GM danios in June's Practical Fishkeeping. Apparantly they change colour with the pH of the water, so they possibly could be used by breeders to continually monitor the water quality for fish such as rams who require certain acidic conditions. : (My conjecture)

Also, on einstein.tv there was a report that a rhesus monkey has been created carrying a jellyfish DNA gene, the first known GM primate. Humans next I suppose.

could just b me, but aint rhesus a kind of blood type (rhesus positive, so on)
y must they confuse us with all this cross-naming?? hmph:hmph:

that andy thing was a baaaad pun. twas funnt when they called the cloned chicken britney. damn i hate britney's voice...sounds like gravel in a blender!!:mad:
 
There's also a monkey called Rhesus Monkey. I saw a skeleton of it, looked very much like a human skeleton with tail. I want one of those skeletons.
 
Want to resurrect this thread as I was reading over the weekend that scientists have been experimenting on the above mentioned zebra danios and found that they regenerated 20% of their heart when that amount was removed. This is apparantly unusual.

Therefore, how long can we expect to wait before heart patients get injected with zebra danio DNA?
 
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