Pink Danio's

[woogie]

Can someone shed a little light on this one for me please? Whilst browsing my lfs the other day i noticed some new fish that i had not seen before, pink danios!. they are about the same size as my zebras but have longer more flowing side fins and are EXTREMELY pink almost flurescent. my wife fell in love with these little blighters and talked me into getting 5. now after searching the net for any evidence of them and finding none im left with a bad feeling that i have brought some artificialy coloured fish. have i? anyone heard of them? help!

 

[OohFeeshy]

Try Googling GloFish. GM danios, generally.

 

[wendywc]

What a popular topic this is for the last couple of weeks. See this previous thread... http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=164776

There are genetically modified pink danios called glofish. Here's their official site. http/www.glofish.com/
They are not dyed fish. However, my understanding is because glofish aren't imported into the UK or outside of the US, the pink danios that you see in the UK and outside of the US most likely are dyed.

 

[OohFeeshy]

I wouldn't nessecarily say thats true. While they're probably not 'officialy' glofish, it wouldn't suprise me if some bootleg fish farms were breeding them and importing them. However, it also wouldn't suprise me if some bootleg fish farms were dyeing danios and passing them off as glofish, but that's less likely when glofish should breed as easily as regular danios.

 

[three-fingers]

longer more flowing side fin

That would suggest that one of Oohfeeshy's ideas are correct, since as far as i'm aware glofish are just gm regular zebra danios. I would have thought that the glofish company would be more careful when breeding them.

 

[Callum]

if it was more of a cream with a pink could be alibno zebra danios

 

[woogie]

Thanx for the site link. Some useful stuff. So are you sure that the Glofish that i have brought in the U.K are dyed?. Im pretty gutted if i have broken the first rule of trop fish keeping and brought some dyed fish. How can i know for sure?

 

[Teelie]

Stick them under a blacklight and see if they glow.

 

[Kevstir]

even if there not dyed they still shouldn't be aloud , has anyone seen the pictures on that site ?, to me its just wrong to go genetically modifying the colour of fish just to make a fast buck..

 

[woogie]

I dont have a black light, any other way of telling? They have faint whiteish stripes like zebras but whilst similar in size to zebras they have longer side fins and tails. also they dont seem to interact with my zebras, im guessing they would if they were dyed danios. Are glofish actually danios at all?

How on earth do people dye fish anyway?

 

[Teelie]

Glofish are exactly like Zebra Danios only with the glowing gene inserted into them.

 

[woogie]

Just read the whole page on the glofish and as a novice fishkeeper am horrified that i have been duped into buying these fish. A valuable lesson has been learned! i.e Not to take my wife to the l.f.s with me!!!!.

Still a bit baffled as to why they might have differing features to my zebras.

 

[dwarfgourami]

Don't panic yet folks! There are long-finned danios- just bred to be that way; these could be genetically modified longfins. Or, more likely, glodanios bred with longfins. The original glodanios were bred for scientific purposes, and not meant to hit the hobbyist market, but of course somebody saw the chance of making money.

Tbh I don't think this is cruel in anything like the same way as dyeing fish. True, they have been bred to show unnatural colours- but you could say that of your average guppy or betta too- how many bright blue bettas do you suppose are out there in the wild? To us, breeding by genetical modification seems less natural than oldfashioned selection of parents, but I don't suppose it makes any difference to the fish; they are not actually being cruelly treated. Personally, I prefer keeping fish with colours that have a natural purpose, but I wouldn't prevent betta lovers from buying bettas if that's what they like. The dyed fish- yes, they should be totally banned!

 

[eschaton]

even if there not dyed they still shouldn't be aloud , has anyone seen the pictures on that site ?, to me its just wrong to go genetically modifying the colour of fish just to make a fast buck..

Why is it wrong exactly?

People have been selectively breeding certain fish like Bettas for centuries. This just shortcuts the process considerably. It doesn't hurt the Danio, and if anything it's a disadvangage if they get into the wild and mix with regular Zebra Danios, so I don't see it being an issue.

Dying is one thing. Genetically modified seems perfectly fine to me.

 

[woogie]

But surley there is a differance between selective breeding and geneticly modifying fish. no?