glowfish - split from auction request list.

[mseguin]

I don't know of anyone in the area that has Glo-Fish. Do you mean the genetically modifed zebra danios? Or the injected glassfish? If it's the danios you're after, yuo could try askig at the U of Ottawa biology department. Make sure to check they're not illegal in Canada, I know they're restricted in some places.

[Beardy]

i dont mind if there legal or not , i just want them lol , i mean the ones that are bright red

[Mettle]

If you're speaking of the genetically modified zebra danios, please don't support their creation by purchasing them. Illegal or not, the fact that these animals' very genes have been spliced and tampered with is disgusting. Not to mention that their obvious lack of popularity is a result of them not being that cool anyway - in other words, they flopped. They don't glow like promised.

Also, if you're speaking of dyed fish - like the painted glass fish - please don't buy these either. Their lives are severely comrpimised by people ripping off their slime coats and either dipping them into dye or injecting them with it. For every one you see in the store I'm sure 10 died just to get it there. It's sick and inhumane.

[mseguin]

The Glo-fish were actually created as a pollution indicator. They have a gene added from jellyfish that makes them flouresce (or lose the glow, I foget which) when environmental conditions deteriorrate. Personally I don't think they're that interesting, but to each their own.
http://www.glofish.com/
Of course, read everything on that site with a grain of salt, it's a marketing site.

[Shouganai]

I'm with Mettle on this one - well said, by the way!

For more info on dyed fish: http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/pfk/pages/show_article.php?article_id=72

and on glofish: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ca/volume_2/cav2i3/glofish/Glofish.htm

It kinda made me sick when I found out that they were actually commercializing the glofish. Its one thing to splice genes and mess around with genetics for science (and even that can be sketchy at times), but just to sell as a novelty? It just seems like it'd be asking for trouble.

[mseguin]

Personally i don't really have a problem with them becuz they're really not cruel. It's not like the dyed or painted  fish where the fish is actually harmed by the process. Really is there much of a difference between glofish and breeding albino fish. Both are genetic modifications, but one is more direct than the other (yes albino fish are "natural" but they probably would not survive in th wild)
Like I said, I don't particularly like them but I don't thnk they're the monstrosity some people make them out to be.

As for the auction, I'm always looknig for more plants, and if anyone ahs a SAE that would be wonderful.

[Shouganai]

I don't think its cruel either, I'm just a bit wary about the whole gmo thing.

I too am looking for an SAE! Got so much of that darn algae when my CO2 was down for a while, and its not going away all that fast now.

[Mettle]

I'm simply bringing home some SAEs from work tomorrow. I think they're only about $4.98.  

As for the Glofish thing... One thing that I already mentioned is that they don't glow like promised. In the labs they were looking at them under special lights and what not. In these conditions they glowed. (I'm not familiar with the genetics of the species of jellyfish they were spliced with - or jellyfish in general - so I don't know if these fish require some type of 'charge' or not.) All I kow is that the result has been lackluster at best.

[mseguin]

Yeah it has to be under UV light I beleive.

[Sue]

"Tampering" with animal DNA to make various transgenic species, has become an invaluable tool in biological research. It shouldn't be viewed as disgusting.

Fluorescence is usually triggered by specific wavelengths, such as ultra violet as sugested above.

[gator]

"Tampering" with animal DNA to make various transgenic species, has become an invaluable tool in biological research. It shouldn't be viewed as disgusting.

Here, here!  I couldn't agree with the above statement more.  After all, what's the diff between these procedures and selective breeding, a farming practice that has been going on for thousands of years.

[Mettle]

I'd like to see a jellyfish breed with a zebra danio. Heh.

[PaleoFishGirl]

Here, here!  I couldn't agree with the above statement more.  After all, what's the diff between these procedures and selective breeding, a farming practice that has been going on for thousands of years.

Well, the 'difference' is that it happens a heck of a lot faster than thousands of years of selective breeding (or better yet, hundreds of millions of years of evolutionary change)  Still, the people that are worried about genetic 'tampering' are mostly those that don't even believe in evolution!?

[mseguin]

Ouch, that's not fair.
Isn't the current theory that the changes really really fast (punctuated equilibrium)?
Anyway, I think it comes down to people misunderstanding what a GMO is. Scientists just don't randomly grab a piece of DNA and stick it in another organism, not knowing what the DNA codes. True, they can't always be sure everything the DNA codes for, but they generally have a pretty good idea, and probably better than what a selective breeder knows about what is being selecetd along with the traits they want.

[Shouganai]

Hey now, I believe in evolution!

Its just that I'm an EVS student, and I am really on the fence about the whole GMO thing. I know a lot of people in my program who are BLINDLY against GMOs, but I am not. I just don't want to form an absolute opinion until I gain more (less biased) information about them.

If anyone wants to point me in the direction of some papers or similar information, that'd be great.

[mseguin]

And i don't beleive in evolution (well microeveolution yes, macro no) And I don't think GMO's are all bad. Don't get me wrong, it needs to be monitored as there is the potential for substantial danger, but that's true of just about anything in science, especially biology.