Glo Fish Reproduction

[bbrice]

I bought two green glo fish and have them in a 300 gallon outdoor goldfish pond...
I now have 2 green ones and 10 smaller normal colored ones,,I saw them spawn and seems that only 10 made it, I am sure some of the eggs and fry got eaten by other fish I have with them... Why are the offspring not GREEN?

 

[Corleone]

The added genes don't breed pure. If you mix different colors of them, I believe there's a lethal factor that will kill fish that carry more than one color gene.

 

[MHunt]

The other option is that these were not true glo fish, and were actually dyed fish, where the colour would not pass onto the offspring anyway. Either way the means of producing these fish is questionable.

 

[Mikaila31]

True glo fish should produce glowing offspring. When you mix colors the offspring tend to be brown. Offspring or fish that you raised have to be given away for free, or I think you might be able to trade them, selling them is a no-no .

 

[LauraFrog]

True glofish will produce the same coloured offspring - IF bred to another glofish. Yours might have spawned with a different colour fish or the offspring might even be from two normal zebra danios (which is what they modified).
There is definitely a lethal gene involved somewhere, and I think it may be impossible to breed these. As far as I know the gene is introduced during early cleavage by irrigating dishes of normal zebra danio eggs with a harmless virus used as a vector for the modified gene that turns them green or orange or pink or blue or whatever. I have heard of this method being used to produce genetically modified fish before, specifically farmed fish which are given rapid growth genes.