Let’s talk GloFish

[Burleson]

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I can't help but feel a deep sense of discomfort when I look at GloFish. There's something about them that makes me uneasy, almost like they're trapped in a never-ending cycle of artificial beauty. When I watch them swim around, I can't shake the thought of what it's like for them. I put myself in their shoes (or fins, I guess) and it's as if someone squirted cleaning products in my mouth—stinging, harsh, and utterly out of place. The unnatural glow they possess just seems to highlight their vulnerability, like a prisoner forced to wear a fluorescent prison uniform. It’s hard to escape the feeling that they’ve been reduced to mere novelties, stripped of the dignity and comfort that their wild counterparts might have. It’s like they're not fish at all anymore—they’re just synthetic oddities swimming in someone else’s idea of "cool."

 

[gwand]

I agree completely. I wish it was illegal.

 

[anewbie]

Even worse (or perhaps not as bad) they are just plain ughly.

 

[GaryE]

A lot of people love their glofish, as well as other lab created creatures.

I don't like them, but I have to respect the tastes and interests of others even if I don't share them. I may not like your shirt, either, but. If I had a store, I wouldn't sell them, and none will ever creep into my tanks. But the same is true of blood parrots, electric blue dempsies and acaras, fancy guppies, fancy Bettas and linebred Cichlids. I learned a long time ago that my tastes are for my choices.

 

[anewbie]

There is one 'artificial' fish i have a special love for and that is/are gold rams.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

I think glofish are an abomination. I have never bought much from pet stores or LFS and I have two rules in this respect. I refuse to patronize any store or online vendor that sells glowfish and/or baby tank busters to anybody that might buy them not knowing any better.

I also do not share GaryE's willingness to respect folks who are willing to buy such fish.

Of course, this is just my opinion.

 

[fishorama]

I find some hybrid atrocities to be worse than glow fish. But I won't keep either. I prefer natural fish...well, maybe some color variants, but I don't really like long fins or albinos & certainly not balloon fish of any kind.

 

[GaryE]

Let he who is without long finned fish cast the first stone (to replace the manufactured decor in the tank). I used to have fancy guppies and fancy Bettas, linebred swordtails and black mollies. As a kid, I tried to linebreed metallic green wild form guppies. It's part of the hobby - the ornamental fish hobby.

I'm now part of the the biological fish hobby, and don't need the in your face colours, weird fins or human produced attributes. I have too much fun figuring out why nature selected for the things I see without clouding the view with things chosen by some guy in a basement in Philadelphia.

If you like modified and manufactured fish, keep them humanely. Don't expect me to say they're cute, as I prefer to keep my mouth shut around them.

I'll get excited at seeing a less colourful dwarf Cichlid or more naturally colourful killies than I ever will at a laboratory fish. I may want to learn about its habitat and natural history, and the unnatural history of ornamentals doesn't interest me.

That doesn't reflect on the fish owner. It would reflect on the producer of industrially deformed fish like balloons or glofish. I have a great respect for the (misspent, to me, but who cares?) skills of linebreeding aquarists. They learn genetics, and have to be very dedicated and meticulous in their work. I am more interested in talking shop with breeders of difficult natural fish who also need to acquire quite a skillset to follow their interests.

If a store sells celestial goldfish, balloon fish or other fish with painful or seriously harmful mutations, I prefer to buy elsewhere. If they sell glofish, I look at the market. Aquarium stores around here barely survive, and I know the one local place that won't sell glo-products hurts his bottom line with that. If he starts selling fishproducts, he has to survive. Those of us who buy all our fish from large online suppliers to try to save a few cents force shop owners to sell glofish to survive.

We can't be 'aquarium fundamentalists', as that way always leads to the narrow minded bashing of differences. I'd never suggest someone get glofish, blood parrots, polar things, electric blue things or long finned mutants, but if they go there, we talk fish and aquarium keeping about them. If I discover they're local, then I don't really want to see their tanks, but if I do I'll say "Mmmm, I like the location you picked for your tank" or something of that type..

 

[Jinx_]

IMO it's animal cruelty/abuse. Don't they like forcefully inject the fish with some dye, and some don't even make it? I haven't seen any here in UK THANKFULLY.

 

[Essjay]

There are dyed fish. This practice is banned in the UK but it is not illegal to sell fish dyed in another country and imported. Some have the whole body dyed, others have patterns tattooed on their bodies.

And there are GM fish; GloFish. These have a jellyfish gene inserted into the egg. They were created using zebra danios for a legitimate reason - they glow when subjected to certain water pollutants. Of course the ornamental fish trade soon realised they could make a profit selling them, and these companies have created GloFish of several species just to pander to the demand for colourful fish.
GloFish are not permitted in the UK as almost all GM organisms are banned.