What Is Meant By Glofish?

[DeanoL83]

I see this term used quite often and I'm thinking it refers to a certain category/species of fish (danios???), but not entirely sure?
 
Where did the term come from?  What fish does it cover?
 
Thanks

 

[stanleo]

Glofish are genetically or chemically altered fish that glow in the dark. It's a cruel practice that drastically shortens the fish's lifespan and hinders their growth and other factors that make it a horrible thing to do to a living thing. It's done to tetras, danios, goldfish and probably others. I recommend never buying them, the more people buy them the longer the practice will keep going.

There is a glowlight tetra that is naturally occurring and quite pretty.

 

[DeanoL83]

sounds terrible, can't believe what we as humans do to animals sometimes.
 
The glowlight tetras sound cool though - will have to have a look at them

 

[Ninjouzata]

Glofish are fish that have been genetically altered..although most of them now are not the originals that were messed with I think, just their offspring.
They used jellyfish DNA and I think at first the reason for this was to somehow check for pollution? THIS has a bit more on it, which I realize is a wiki article but seems pretty accurate
 
There are dyed & tattooed fish though where they use a needle or dip the fish in a chemical to remove their slime coat and such and then dip into the dye. That is something that I think is terrible and should not be supported.
This does hurt their immune system and shorten their lifespan. I'm not sure if the glofish suffer from the same thing. Personally I like all fishes natural colors, much more beautiful

 

[attibones]

You are right, Ninj, that these are not F0 fish (meaning these are not the originally altered Glofish, which is also a brand; NEVER take the advice on their website for truth as it is pretty horrible). However, I do believe that the compromised DNA does still negatively influence the fish's natural lifespans. Plus, these fish are now marketed mostly for children and nano tanks, which are not suited to any of the main species of GloFish (tiger barbs, skirt tetras, zebra danios, et al), which further contributes to the lack of long-lived altered species. 
 
There are some stickies in the hybrid section which discuss tattooed and dyed fish (the only examples I've really seen in stores are African dwarf frogs and parrot cichlids), but these too should be avoided. They are not creations of the Glofish company though.
 
But, as stanleo stated, the glowlight tetras are very cool fish, and everything I've read says they are great in a community setting. I'd like to keep them eventually. 

 

[DreamertK]

I thought it was only dianos that are genetically altered, since they're illegal in many places. I have tetras and they certainly don't glow in the dark, they just have a little red band from head to tail. They're supposed to live 5+ years, I havent had one death in two years as far as I've kept them. But as far as the genetic alteration, the fish has to take resources from it's regular needs to produce the glow, so of course it's going to grow slower and possibly have a shorter lifespan. In microbiology, an antibiotic resistant bacteria has an extra gene that it has to produce extra chemicals to be resistant to antibiotics, so the bacteria grow slower and are easily out-competed for resources compared to the regular bacteria.
 
A lot of cory species are dyed for more colors (ie "blueberry" cories/ext). If you cant find their name on a google search, they're probably dyed.

 

[attibones]

Not all tetra species are altered, of course. I think they are illegal to sell and buy (not, however, to give away) in the UK, but in America, we can have as many unpleasant experiments in our tanks as we want.
 
I frequently see the Glofish with bent spines, messed up faces, and fin issues. My sister kept a few. They didn't last long at all. 

 

[DreamertK]

I've never seen any Glofish danios in any fish store in my state (even big chains), so I assumed they're illegal here. Goes to look it up...
 

As many people know, our fish received a positive recommendation from the California Department of Fish and Game in November 2003, and the California Fish & Game Commission voted to move forward with the process of exempting our fish from their ban on biotech aquatic organisms in April 2004. However, we were subsequently advised by Commission attorneys that state law in California would require the completion of a formal ecological review to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act before the Commission could move forward with the approval process. Unfortunately, this review would be extremely expensive, involve procedural uncertainty, and likely take several years to complete.

 
We're the only state that bans them.

 

[the_lock_man]

Glofish are genetically or chemically altered fish that glow in the dark. It's a cruel practice that drastically shortens the fish's lifespan and hinders their growth and other factors that make it a horrible thing to do to a living thing. It's done to tetras, danios, goldfish and probably others. I recommend never buying them, the more people buy them the longer the practice will keep going.

There is a glowlight tetra that is naturally occurring and quite pretty.

 
They are genetically modified, not chemically. This isn't cruel, it doesn't shorten their life span, it doesn't hinder their growth. It isn't done to a living thing, it was originally done to a fish egg, and now the modified gene is "locked in", they reproduce normally, and the offspring have the fluorescent colouring also.
 
You are getting confused with dyed or tattooed fish, which is cruel, and does shorten life span.
 
I am totally against both processes. Nature is beautiful enough. (And, yes, I do realise that many so-called natural species are selectively bred, I don't think this is the appropriate place to discuss that, if you want a discussion on it, make a new thread, PM me to let me know you have, and I will happily discuss that issue with you).
 

I thought it was only dianos that are genetically altered, since they're illegal in many places.

 
They originally carried out the process on zebra danios, but have since done so with black widow tetras and tiger barbs.
 

 I have tetras and they certainly don't glow in the dark, they just have a little red band from head to tail.

 
Those are glowlight tetras, which are naturally occuring, as opposed to Glofish black widow tetras, which are genetically modified. There are also glowlight danios, which are again a naturally ocurring species.
 
As a genetically modified organism, it is illegal to import Glofish into the EU. I am unsure whether it is illegal to possess them, though.

 

[DreamertK]

Apparently they've expanded their selection of fish since the last time I looked into this.

 

[stanleo]

I was getting those confused but I didn't know that the dyed fish were not part of the brand name. Either way I think messing with what nature has made is just wrong. 

 

[Gvilleguy]

I have been keeping fish for four years, and the entire time I have kept a shoal including both zebra danios and glofish danios. As a few of you mentioned, the glofish in the stores are the natural offspring of original parents that were genetically bred to include a jellyfish gene. The only glow happens under a black light or blue LED lights.

As I am the only one on this thread so far who has actually owned the fish, I can tell you that my glofish have been IDENTICAL to zebras danios in terms of their life spans in my tank. I have found no differences between the unnaturals and naturals for illness, behavior, or longevity. And the glofish and zebras interact with each other normally....they don't seem to notice the extreme color differences!

So hate them if you must, but the actual glofish that you purchase at Petsmart do not realize they are Frankenstein's children. They are just happy danios.