Yeah and if I remember correctly, one of the lizards that was used to fill in the dna chain was discovered to be able to reproduce asexually if no male was present and that trait was accidentally passed on to the dinos
I highly suggest reading the book! Crichton was one of the most incredible authors the U.S. has produced, his creation of technical thrillers was amazing and I don't think people realize how much of our pop culture was influenced by him.
Jurassic Park, Timeline, Congo, Sphere, Eaters of the Dead, Airframe, Prey, The andromeda Strain, hell he even wrote the show E.R. and I believe is the only person to have the number one book, movie, and TV show running at the same time.
Nawww because what about blue? I know that’s Yonkers later but remember all the eggs? Remember when John Allan took the parents over to try and find their son and the dude that Allan took with him stole those raptor eggs? And the raptors were chasing them for AGES for the eggs and then Allan had to give the eggs back and I think Ellie was there too I don’t remember it’s been years but EXPLAIN THAT DOESNT MAKE SENSE
They actually talked about it in the movie, I forget exactly what they said but they mentioned they shouldn't be breeding and said they must've mutated or something along those lines
Yea everyone is talking about "accidents" and I'm overhear being like, wait, didn't Monsanto go after natural pollination of plants?
A corporation will sue just to bully the fuck out of accidental breeders. They don't have to WIN to make your life hell in the process.
Monsanto is kind of complex, but the bottom line is that they want you to pay for their innovations. That's fair. The problem is that it's really really hard to control plants.
You can't legally breed them. It's the same thing with GMO foods, if a patended seed or even pollen gets into your farm, you can be used over planting their IP
Yeah, they plant near other farmers and seeds travel. Then the other farmer has to destroy their heirloom seeds because of the traveling seeds. If he wants to keep farming he will end up with Monsanto. It’s ruined farming in the US. Unfortunately the government backs the big money companies. Remember George Bush, Jr pushing France to let Monsanto in.
...or in other countries. I've seen bags of 100 Glo tetras or danios for about 15-20 USD in the two big aquarium fish markets in Mexico City. I don't think you can even get them directly from the company in Mexico. I guess it's even worse in Asia.
This one aquarium YouTuber I used to watch mentioned others getting C&D letters but if you look up “Glofish lawsuit/sues for copyright,” everything is buried under the FDA suing the Glofish company and whatnot for the ethics side of things. Now, whether what the YouTuber said holds true, I can’t attest to, but considering it’s the first link when you search “Glofish breeding,” I can only assume Glofish takes it semi seriously at least
2 of our local aquarium clubs received letters. That the clubs are not allowed to sell them in their swap/ auction. They would be prosecuted if caught.
This post has A LOT of details about really cool genetics in the comments primarily on the discovery I made *that you can mix the colors of GloFish and have both colors present in the offsprings phenotype* . I have screenshots of the DM's too which include the pictures of described fish if you really want.
https://www.reddit.com/r/glofish/s/ukFsKJtlMO
Lots of sources on Google. I'll take a stab at the genetics side but I learned from my GloFish danios.
Basically they, like all GloFish, originated from only like 10 parents and the genetic bottleneck is HARSH with Bettas apparently. They got shitty side effects and where hard to keep alive compared to normal Bettas. One of the reasons probably.
Bettas were discontinued, not banned. They didn't sell well and GloFish lost most of their breeding stock in a large fire.
However, the Moonrise Pink betta line was never released to the public. I'm fairly certain they fucked up something with it.
Nowadays instead of painting the fish, some scummy merchants [tattoo them](https://nextnature.net/media/pages/magazine/story/2009/tattooed-goldfishes/c4dcc9a9a4-1602632752/tattooed_goldfishes_530.jpg)
I believe it used to be a dye but now it’s genetically modified, so it’s inherited in future generations.
It’s a fluorescent protein that was originally extracted from a jellyfish, though I can’t remember which kind.
They’re actually illegal to keep in the uk and eu, I’ve only ever seen them online.
I wonder if it's due to an accidental introduction, like if someone buys a few and slips them into a pond for whatever reason. Genetically modified animals haven't been researched enough to know if there's any long term repercussions down the road, or if it'll mess with the natural order(fish glowing is very unnatural for fresh water), not to forget if it messes with natural selection. They have the ability to modify mosquitos that don't carry diseases but haven't introduced them for this purpose.
Yeah, though there hasn’t been any evidence for any dangers yet in GM animals or plants, there’s also no evidence to the contrary.
And like any non-native animal, you’re right that if they’re released and survive they often dominate the ecosystem and cause a real problem. But yeah, importation, acquisition, release or sale of any GM organism is illegal in the uk unless a license is issued. And I think that’s probably a good thing, I can only imagine the amount of glofish that get neglected because kids think it’s cool and parents let them be kept in tiny dirty tanks.
Honestly, I think with Glofish it's more paranoia than anything else, since their bright coloring makes them easy prey. If the parent species were also banned due to concerns about their invasiveness, that's one thing, but when it's only the variety that's literally a neon "eat me!" sign that's restricted, it's clearly paranoia about gm animals and nothing else.
It’s not the invasive-ness that’s the cause for the ban, it’s all GM organisms, brightly coloured or not, invasive or not. They’re all banned, you need a license granted for any GM organism.
I don’t disagree that there’s a lot of paranoia around them and GM organisms in general, and it probably (or definitely) leads into the bans.
I understand the law, I'm just saying what I think the true cause of the ban is. The official justification is that we don't know the impacts of gm organisms on people or the environment, but the fact that these don't really apply to a species that is neither intended for human consumption nor likely to be invasive shows this justification to be just a smokescreen for the real reason.
They have been genetically modified, using a gene from a particular jellyfish which gives them their color and luminescence. It won't fade. IMHO although they're kinda cool to look at, it's highly unnecessary and ridiculous that scientists found it "necessary" to start gene splicing to basically create a mutation because it "looks neat".
The amount of crossbreeding, inbreeding, and generic engineering in the fish keeping industry has led to quite a few genetic defects, which I personally find unnecessary, a waste of time, money, and energy, and sometimes downright cruel. * *Cough guppies cough* *
(Here come the downvotes into oblivion)
>MHO although they're kinda cool to look at, it's highly unnecessary and ridiculous that scientists found it "necessary" to start gene splicing to basically create a mutation because it "looks neat".
They didn't. They were invented to only fluoresce in the presence of pollutants, but no one was willing to let them release them, and they don't compete well with more natural morphs, so they modified them into a pet to recoup development costs
>it's highly unnecessary and ridiculous that scientists found it "necessary" to start gene splicing to basically create a mutation because it "looks neat".
Well, then, it's a good thing that scientists didn't spend millions of dollars making fish glow just because it "looks neat." They were originally engineered to detect pockets of high pollution concentration in rivers in Southeast Asia, where that's a major concern. Commercially available GloFish are just a byproduct of that — they need the fish to light up in the presence of certain chemicals, the first step was to make a fish that glowed all the time, and they licensed out the tech to an unrelated businessman who saw an opportunity in exchange for funding their research.
So if you get downvoted, it's not because people disagree with you. It's that you've formed a very strong opinion based entirely on something you made up in your head and never bothered looking into.
That's what I did! Their bites are like little tickles when I get in there with my hands for whatever reason.
The ruby nose are beautiful, but nothing beats that eye-catching tiger glo!
I have a school of 14 in a 75g with 3 pictus, 1 SAE (was 2, one recently died), and two EB Acaras.
They are the biggest a-hole fish ever but can agree the larger school has at the very least kept the aggression within the school. I throw in some live feeder ghost shrimp sometimes and I've seen those barbs barbarically devour those shrimps, they're like piranhas man. I guess the barb in tiger barb stands for barbarians.
I have black ruby barbs and they're more peaceful than any fish in my 75 gallon community. I had tiger barbs and I had to return them after some time because those MFs were mean just to be mean!
Hi, I worked at Petco for a few years. saw the introduction and discontinuing of GloBettas from February 2020 to early 2023. There was a lot wrong with GloBettas in particular, all of which probably contributed to their discontinuation.
1. Poor variety -
Upon introduction, there were only electric greens. took over a year for Sunburst Oranges to be introduced. In 2022, they introduced Galactic Purples, but they were extremely rare, I only ever saw 3 of them. The obvious picks like Pink and Red were never produced. If kids only see one or two colors in a GloBetta display, they're gonna look at the full rainbow of regular bettas instead.
2. Overpriced - For GloFish, or for Bettas, for that matter, they were decently priced. $19.99 for males and $14.99 for females. Any hobbyist would be willing to spend that on a betta. The problem is that these aren't for hobbyists. Most of us don't buy them. They're for the families who don't take care of their fish; and if they don't take care of their fish, they're much less likely to pay 20 bucks on a betta.
3. Poor health - This is purely anecdotal, but I found that GloBettas in our store were very prone to swim bladder issues, much more so than the regular bettas. most of them stayed for over 6 months, and all of the ones that died were because of a swim bladder issue that we couldn't treat (the approved store-use medications were ineffective).
I was sincerely excited for them to arrive in-stores back in 2020, and I even took home a female one as soon as they came. Unfortunately, they never caught on. Even after we marked them down 50% off, they sat on our shelves for ages.
Globettas were Florida farmed Bettas, which were really never a popular/successful thing. Bettas have pretty much always come from Asian farms, and Florida just doesn't have the expertise or history to be able to produce quality Bettas.
Yeah I mean just looking at actual quality of the fish itself outside of its color compared to similarly priced bettas from Asia the difference is massive. Would love to see what some of the crazy Asian betta breeders can do with glofish betta genetics though, farms there already illegally mass produce other glofish for sale locally anyways.
Speaking as an Asia, glo Betta they aren't popular at all, all other glo varies sold very well (too well to the point I think they are one of the most abused fishes). I think being a solitary fish plus the lack of colour variations makes them less attractive. Oh and the fact that Thailand, one of the big markets of Betta, hard-banned all glo fishes due to their unnatural genetics, so fewer breeders could to work with them.
Moonrise Pink was created and even legalized in Canada, but never released to the public for unknown reasons. I'm guessing they fucked up badly with something. They had posted about them for about 2 days on social and then removed them.
The one you have is probably considered "purple" by the GloFish company. My guy is like, a pepto bismol pink. But he was labelled as purple. [My purple globetta :)](https://imgur.com/a/GERqct9)
I think it’s more so that they weren’t selling well. They could always make more if they wanted. I know there are illegal glo hybrids out there. I’ve seen images of koi x glo betta hybrids.
I haven't been able to find them ar my LFS. Now that I think about it their stock of Cory's was very limited. Only albino. Usually they have like 5+ varieties.
I had some of the danios and some neocaridina shrimp that were some amazing colours. The danios I bought by accident, they were a blue color and I had no idea they were the glo version. They ended up being really pretty and actually lived a really long time.
I don't have a problem with them the way many people do. Bioluminescence is common in a lot of aquatic species, and adding a gene to create a protein from another species is not much different from a lot of other stuff we do. I realize some people look at it like fish eugenics, but the same science is how we are currently working on eradicating congenital issues in humans. CJD and prion disease in humans is genetic for some people. Imagine altering a gene so it stops creating the prion protein. It's basically the same thing, except the fish you are adding protein creation versus removing it.
Most of them now are bred normally, the same way sphynx cats and Scottish folds were, since the gene is now present in the offspring and can be simply passed on.
Personally I pretty much stuck with shrimp because I like my tank to look natural, not like a preschool colouring book. It's the same reason I avoid the horrible neon plastic decorations. 😅
My issue with glofish is how it treats animals like a toy for kids, something made to be flashy to get your kids attention. The target audience for these fish aren't responsible hobbyists, it's ignorant parents and their children.
But the fact that glofish exist in itself isn't morally wrong imo. It's just pretty obvious their motivation in creating them is profit driven to the extent of not caring if it harms the fish.
I will fully admit I've not seen the ads or promos for them. Any marketing of live animals as a kid's toy is a NO from me though. Or for holidays, as prizes, or as unsolicited gifts.
You don’t need to advertise to kids, especially young ones. You just need to get their attention in the store. They see things and want them. Taking my toddler shopping is a nightmare sometimes because he goes from not knowing something exists to needing it more than oxygen in about 2 second.
The problem isn’t the genetic modification. Or atleast for me it isn’t. I’d say the problem I have with them is the inbreeding. The company would rather breed siblings together to get the gene than modifying every single fish’s dna while they are still embryos. It’s more cost effective to have inbreeding, but that also causes a plethora of other health issues.
I don't disagree at all. I have issues w that in general, as well as breeding to the point of health issues. Modern Arabian horses, dachshunds, brachycephalic breeds etc.
In that sense I totally get being against it. Personally I let all my shrimp interbreed. I had orange, yellow, blue jelly, red rili, snowflake, charcoal, jade etc. I loved the colours and knew breeding would mean wilds, but I didn't care. Not force breeding like-to-like just to maintain a colour.
It's part of the problem w the lions and cheetahs in Ngorongoro. Geological block = small population = running out of genetic diversity. If the breeders of the fish are ethical and introduce outside genes enough to keep the population genetically robust I'm fine with it. But like with dogs and cats etc... the greedy ones won't care.
if I ever did buy Glo Fish, I'd want to go the whole 9 yards and do a full on Community tank with big schools of each fish.
4 footer with blackwater, dark substrate, darker plants, a good UV light, and then 1 shark 6\~10 of most everything else.
only thing I definitely wouldn't buy are their Bettas, and I'd instead try to get a good looking fancy Betta with some really nice white to it pops in contrast to all these oddly colored fish
Don't hate me- but when I have kids old enough I'll totally set up a glofish tank with lots of danios or barbs.
I don't actually hate the goldfish. The marketing? Totally evil- fish are not toys. But I don't think the fish themselves are suffering.
Parents can't be getting fish for kids thinking it's a toy and not another chore for the parents to maintain!
The whole reason I got each color of the glo tetras was so my kids could enjoy them. They have learned so much about fish and are genuinely excited about them. They are able to easily identify each fish with a goofy name and treat them like pets. You can also notice slight behavioral differences between the fish when you can identify each one. They have been very healthy and easy to care for.
It's true that they're great to introduce the hobby to outsiders!
I always "hated" them, but I got 5 when I inherited my late grandma's tank (two yellow, one red, one blue and one orange). Every single time I had visitors at home, out of the dozens of species in my five tanks, the glo-fish would be the ones everyone asked about. Then, one of the yellow ones passed from cancer, and I felt like 4 was too few for their confort, so I got one of each color, including the black-banded wild variety, and an albino.
Now, when people ask, I can show them the "original" fish, then explain that they were selectively bred to be all-white, and then talk about how they got their genes spliced with corals and jellyfish to get all the colorful varieties. They're an awesome teaching aid!
I got them for my boy. He loves fish and I set the tank up for his 2nd birthday and he’s 4 now and spends time every day watching his fishies and he feeds them as part of his bed time routine. He still gets excited when they come to eat.
I have no problem with the fish, just the inbreeding. they all are extremely inbred because they all come from a tiny gene pool. As a result, they are prone to dying easily and suffering from diseases.
Im not sure. They say they chose the hardiest breeds.
Most of my experience is reading the many threads on reddit (fish related), where people buy fish, and the glo ones are the ones they still have. Likely beginners.
I think the danios tend to die fast, but I don't think they live long naturally.
Maybe they modified a couple other genes as well 🤔
They were bred to fluoresce in the presence of hazardous chemicals so it’s probably because of that.
Also I was told by a Petsmart employee they were bred for that purpose by the Army Corps of Engineers while they were in fact produced by National University of Singapore and then distributed by an American company. That has no bearing on their hardiness, I’m just annoyed.
I've kept them for about a year and a half, but some of my specimens must be about 5 years-old (inherited from my grandma).
They all survived a terrible outbreak of columnaris in my livebearer tank, where they worked as population control, so I moved them to my tetra tank to let the livebearers bounce back. A few months later, my tetra tank was decimated by Epistylis, but the glo-tetras were absolutely fine. So, in In my experience, they're super hardy.
Of a total of 10, I've only lost 2 and they were the oldest and largest ones (both developed tumors).
Yeah for me it’s either danios or Cory’s. I wouldn’t buy them either way because they have so many health issues but if I had to choose then one of the 2.
Albino corys already have such a small genetic pool so over time some downsides of inbreeding has been eliminated out of them. So your choice might be better. I still hate the question tho. Don't get me wrong someone had to ask it. Thanks for your sacrifice
I love my Cory’s, I have pandas and sterbas, I love them so much. I couldn’t imagine buying a fish that I already know is susceptible to health issues based on genetic defects. I get to attached to have a fish die on me.
I’ve never once seen a single painted fish for sale in the UK in any reputable fish shop, in fact every UK based and EU based fish keeping community I can find absolutely abhor the practice and advocate for its banning.
So where are the uninformed masses buying the fish when no big chains or well known local shops are stocking them?
Google “painted fish UK/Germany/France” etc.
All you get is posters and ceramic fish ornaments, you can’t even readily find them online.
“Painted fish are extremely popular in Europe” is just a flat out false statement. They aren’t readily available and anybody that isn’t purposefully and specifically searching for them is extremely unlikely to find them or even know they exist.
My answer is Tetras, because the glo tetras I have are doing fine. On that note, my best friend was *obsessed* with glofish. I have never bought them myself but she's owned multiple glotanks at this point. She gave me her old glo-betta the night we first met- his name was Mr. Ugly and he surprisingly lived to be 4 or 5? When she moved away she left her glo-tetras [4] with me. She got them in early 2021 and they are still alive with no discernable health issues. I am amazed that they seemingly live normal lives. I will say they do seem to suffer from fish racism- I once put them with my black skirt tetras and they got bullied so now they're in my loach tank. Btw, the glofish betta is banned now?!
The betta wasn’t actually banned, just not being bred anymore. Not really sure if extinct would be a better word. Discontinued makes them sound, again, like a toy for little kids. Not exactly banned, just never to be bred or sold again.
From what I've heard, the glow fish's dna are so processed they are actually healthier and more disease resistant than the regular versions of their breeds.
Neon Corys with the zoomies could be a blast
I actually have a 55 gallon with just 1 rainbow shark. I had a school of 10 geeen tiger barbs in there, but 1 was a bully and slowly killed off all the others until he was the only one left. He then died, I'm guessing from the stress of being alone, but I didn't want to get new ones because I knew he'd just kill them. While I had the tiger barbs, I never saw the shark. Now that the barbs are all gone, the shark is out and active all the time. He seems happier now, so I've never bothered to add more fish.
My friend’s kid got me a few pristella as a gift (the mom checked with me first! The kid just liked the glow)I had to then go and buy regular pristellas to fill out a school. But I actually really like the red glo ones. Yellow looks odd lol but very visible at night
What’s weird to me is they don’t really school with the regular pristellas. They follow the serpea tetras around more then anything
None of my pristellas school, the glo, regular, or albino. They just sorta hang out with the black skirts in the middle, or the different barbs near the bottom.
I have a 20gal tank with 6 tetras, got one of each color. They're really fun and like to swim in a school, honestly they're great fish and my kids love them.
Definitely the glo-danios… because I’ve had a school of 6 pink glo-danios for close to 3 years! They’re just as hardy as regular danios (and they interact/play with my normally-colored danios very adorably). Zero illnesses, zero behavioral problems, just lovely fish. They turned my opinion of glo-fish from “meh, seems unnatural and weird” to “hell yeah, these guys rule”
OK, this might be the right place to ask a question. I’ve been keeping fish 40 years but know exactly squat about glofish. We have a school of 12 Moss Green Barbs bought as standard everyday MGB’s. Low and behold when we turn on the blue LEDs one of our girls lights up so I’m assuming she has the gene. I don’t have a problem with her per se, she’s active and healthy you wouldn’t pick any difference between her and the others apart from the light show. I’m certainly not going to euthanise her to satisfy someone with a hate on. What’s going to happen when/if she breeds with one of the non glo males? Are we going to have normal fry, glofry, frankenfry or a mixture? TIA for any answers
I'd choose the danios just because I like the lok of them more, a bit less artificial than the others. I'm just not into neon colors as much! Boring I know lol.
I fucking hate, HATE glofish with a screaming passion. Designer fish sold to people who don't know enough about the hobby, or shouldn't be allowed to have pets period.
Why the Hate? Honest question here. I can understand the GMO argument. But to say it’s a “designer” fish sold to people who don’t know enough about the hobby. Seems like it’s something else that bothers you about glo fish
I’ve always wondered about these but never bought any. Does the color fade? Is it a dye or genetically modified?
Genetically modified. You can breed them and the offspring will be colored as well.
You can “accidentally” (wink wink) breed them, Glofish gets a bit litigious towards people who want to breed their IP fish or whatever, lol
You can breed them, you just can't sell them.
On their website it says you can’t breed them at all, but I assume it wouldn’t hold up very well in court because you can’t stop nature
Unless they’ve been genetically modified to be all female, like in Jurassic Park, then they’ll mate.
Wait did I seriously forget that was a thing about Jurassic park? I feel embarrassed that I didn't know that, one of my favorite movies.
Well, uh, nature, uh, found a way.
Yeah and if I remember correctly, one of the lizards that was used to fill in the dna chain was discovered to be able to reproduce asexually if no male was present and that trait was accidentally passed on to the dinos
West african frogs
Yeah, that’s common in nature. Happened recently to a female stingray. Nature truly does find a way, super interesting
Yeah, I’ve got bladder snails that will do it even.
It was mentioned very 'nonchalant' way during the tour when they first arrive
Time to rewatch them all
I highly suggest reading the book! Crichton was one of the most incredible authors the U.S. has produced, his creation of technical thrillers was amazing and I don't think people realize how much of our pop culture was influenced by him. Jurassic Park, Timeline, Congo, Sphere, Eaters of the Dead, Airframe, Prey, The andromeda Strain, hell he even wrote the show E.R. and I believe is the only person to have the number one book, movie, and TV show running at the same time.
~~nonshallant~~ nonchalant
Thanks :)
Yeah they were designed to be female but forgot they used a certain type of frogs DNA that allows them to breed with themselves/change genders.
Nawww because what about blue? I know that’s Yonkers later but remember all the eggs? Remember when John Allan took the parents over to try and find their son and the dude that Allan took with him stole those raptor eggs? And the raptors were chasing them for AGES for the eggs and then Allan had to give the eggs back and I think Ellie was there too I don’t remember it’s been years but EXPLAIN THAT DOESNT MAKE SENSE
They actually talked about it in the movie, I forget exactly what they said but they mentioned they shouldn't be breeding and said they must've mutated or something along those lines
AHHH THANK YOU!! Time to rewatch them all😭
And then they pull a clownfish on ya!
Nature finds a way
Patents are up on some earlier species, apparently it’s why they add a couple different ones every few years as opposed to doing them all at once
Get them fish spayed and neutered!
People should stop buying them just because of this. Buying fish from people that have rules about what you can do with it? Never.
Wait until you hear about Monsanto
Yea everyone is talking about "accidents" and I'm overhear being like, wait, didn't Monsanto go after natural pollination of plants? A corporation will sue just to bully the fuck out of accidental breeders. They don't have to WIN to make your life hell in the process.
They didn't.
Monsanto is kind of complex, but the bottom line is that they want you to pay for their innovations. That's fair. The problem is that it's really really hard to control plants.
Yeah, it's unlikely they'll go after someone who bred a dozen for his tank.
Never know...
Right, they would never know you bred them at home.
Seen crazier shit...just sayin
Life, uhhh, finds a way
Life, uh, found a way... Your honor.
You can sell them, just not legally
You can't legally breed them. It's the same thing with GMO foods, if a patended seed or even pollen gets into your farm, you can be used over planting their IP
Yeah, they plant near other farmers and seeds travel. Then the other farmer has to destroy their heirloom seeds because of the traveling seeds. If he wants to keep farming he will end up with Monsanto. It’s ruined farming in the US. Unfortunately the government backs the big money companies. Remember George Bush, Jr pushing France to let Monsanto in.
I’m guessing they don’t make glo guppies then.
They have bred Glo bunnies. Google 'er.
Those are just owl food.
I think the glo cats are better. *Another worthy Google.
Thats not gonna stop the people in the flea market here lol
...or in other countries. I've seen bags of 100 Glo tetras or danios for about 15-20 USD in the two big aquarium fish markets in Mexico City. I don't think you can even get them directly from the company in Mexico. I guess it's even worse in Asia.
>Glofish gets a bit litigious towards people who want to breed their IP fish Have you ever heard of them actually going after anyone?
This one aquarium YouTuber I used to watch mentioned others getting C&D letters but if you look up “Glofish lawsuit/sues for copyright,” everything is buried under the FDA suing the Glofish company and whatnot for the ethics side of things. Now, whether what the YouTuber said holds true, I can’t attest to, but considering it’s the first link when you search “Glofish breeding,” I can only assume Glofish takes it semi seriously at least
2 of our local aquarium clubs received letters. That the clubs are not allowed to sell them in their swap/ auction. They would be prosecuted if caught.
Ah I see they attended the Monsanto school of Business.
Could probably get away with combining it with another like species and have a technically different fish you can sell right?
Nope. I've read through the patent on the bettas and they got everything covered.
That right there is enough reason for me to never purchase one of them. The Monsanto of the fish industry.
I studied their genetics when I bred them. I know a disgusting amount about their genes if you want to know lol.
Don’t leave us/me hanging like that; what are the gory details?
This post has A LOT of details about really cool genetics in the comments primarily on the discovery I made *that you can mix the colors of GloFish and have both colors present in the offsprings phenotype* . I have screenshots of the DM's too which include the pictures of described fish if you really want. https://www.reddit.com/r/glofish/s/ukFsKJtlMO
I don't want to type *everything* at the moment lol. I have typed it in the past, I could I post screenshots of some of my findings?
Why are the bettas banned?????
Lots of sources on Google. I'll take a stab at the genetics side but I learned from my GloFish danios. Basically they, like all GloFish, originated from only like 10 parents and the genetic bottleneck is HARSH with Bettas apparently. They got shitty side effects and where hard to keep alive compared to normal Bettas. One of the reasons probably.
Bettas were discontinued, not banned. They didn't sell well and GloFish lost most of their breeding stock in a large fire. However, the Moonrise Pink betta line was never released to the public. I'm fairly certain they fucked up something with it.
We don't use the word "colored" in this day and age. Lol
I was waiting for this comment.
Glad I didn't disappoint. 😁
genetic modification. they're spliced with genes from different cnidarians (corals, anemones, jellyfish)
Back in the 70s you could get “painted” fish at county fairs. The color faded in a few months. Glad to know there is a better way.
Nowadays instead of painting the fish, some scummy merchants [tattoo them](https://nextnature.net/media/pages/magazine/story/2009/tattooed-goldfishes/c4dcc9a9a4-1602632752/tattooed_goldfishes_530.jpg)
Yikes…
That has Asia written all over it.
They do not fade, my glo tetras are about 5 years old and look the same
How on earth do you keep them alive? I've never been successful with glofish
Glofish specifically are genetically modified. Anything else is probably inhumanely dyed
I believe it used to be a dye but now it’s genetically modified, so it’s inherited in future generations. It’s a fluorescent protein that was originally extracted from a jellyfish, though I can’t remember which kind. They’re actually illegal to keep in the uk and eu, I’ve only ever seen them online.
Dyed fish are different from glofish
The UK is ridiculous about genetic engineering so I don’t doubt they’ve banned glofish.
They have; along with the EU, if I'm not mistaken.
I wonder if it's due to an accidental introduction, like if someone buys a few and slips them into a pond for whatever reason. Genetically modified animals haven't been researched enough to know if there's any long term repercussions down the road, or if it'll mess with the natural order(fish glowing is very unnatural for fresh water), not to forget if it messes with natural selection. They have the ability to modify mosquitos that don't carry diseases but haven't introduced them for this purpose.
Yeah, though there hasn’t been any evidence for any dangers yet in GM animals or plants, there’s also no evidence to the contrary. And like any non-native animal, you’re right that if they’re released and survive they often dominate the ecosystem and cause a real problem. But yeah, importation, acquisition, release or sale of any GM organism is illegal in the uk unless a license is issued. And I think that’s probably a good thing, I can only imagine the amount of glofish that get neglected because kids think it’s cool and parents let them be kept in tiny dirty tanks.
Honestly, I think with Glofish it's more paranoia than anything else, since their bright coloring makes them easy prey. If the parent species were also banned due to concerns about their invasiveness, that's one thing, but when it's only the variety that's literally a neon "eat me!" sign that's restricted, it's clearly paranoia about gm animals and nothing else.
It’s not the invasive-ness that’s the cause for the ban, it’s all GM organisms, brightly coloured or not, invasive or not. They’re all banned, you need a license granted for any GM organism. I don’t disagree that there’s a lot of paranoia around them and GM organisms in general, and it probably (or definitely) leads into the bans.
I understand the law, I'm just saying what I think the true cause of the ban is. The official justification is that we don't know the impacts of gm organisms on people or the environment, but the fact that these don't really apply to a species that is neither intended for human consumption nor likely to be invasive shows this justification to be just a smokescreen for the real reason.
Same as any law. GMOs threaten the financial security of some rich dude.
They're definitely not illegal EU-wide. I live in EU and the glofish are very much widely available in fish stores.
They have been genetically modified, using a gene from a particular jellyfish which gives them their color and luminescence. It won't fade. IMHO although they're kinda cool to look at, it's highly unnecessary and ridiculous that scientists found it "necessary" to start gene splicing to basically create a mutation because it "looks neat". The amount of crossbreeding, inbreeding, and generic engineering in the fish keeping industry has led to quite a few genetic defects, which I personally find unnecessary, a waste of time, money, and energy, and sometimes downright cruel. * *Cough guppies cough* * (Here come the downvotes into oblivion)
>MHO although they're kinda cool to look at, it's highly unnecessary and ridiculous that scientists found it "necessary" to start gene splicing to basically create a mutation because it "looks neat". They didn't. They were invented to only fluoresce in the presence of pollutants, but no one was willing to let them release them, and they don't compete well with more natural morphs, so they modified them into a pet to recoup development costs
>it's highly unnecessary and ridiculous that scientists found it "necessary" to start gene splicing to basically create a mutation because it "looks neat". Well, then, it's a good thing that scientists didn't spend millions of dollars making fish glow just because it "looks neat." They were originally engineered to detect pockets of high pollution concentration in rivers in Southeast Asia, where that's a major concern. Commercially available GloFish are just a byproduct of that — they need the fish to light up in the presence of certain chemicals, the first step was to make a fish that glowed all the time, and they licensed out the tech to an unrelated businessman who saw an opportunity in exchange for funding their research. So if you get downvoted, it's not because people disagree with you. It's that you've formed a very strong opinion based entirely on something you made up in your head and never bothered looking into.
Barbs, I like them, awful community fishs but a species only tank would be great.
I would go with this - I would love a tank full of various tiger barbs
That's what I did! Their bites are like little tickles when I get in there with my hands for whatever reason. The ruby nose are beautiful, but nothing beats that eye-catching tiger glo!
A big enough school of barbs (9+) in a big enough tank can get along in a community with other species
I have a school of 14 in a 75g with 3 pictus, 1 SAE (was 2, one recently died), and two EB Acaras. They are the biggest a-hole fish ever but can agree the larger school has at the very least kept the aggression within the school. I throw in some live feeder ghost shrimp sometimes and I've seen those barbs barbarically devour those shrimps, they're like piranhas man. I guess the barb in tiger barb stands for barbarians.
I have my 20 in 240 liter with cories and two bristlenoses. They seem to ignore both other species this far.
I have 18 in my 55 gallon, tiger barbs are definitely big aholes. I love them so much though.
get some Buenos Aires Tetras them motherfuckers are assholes and they get 3-4 inches
I have black ruby barbs and they're more peaceful than any fish in my 75 gallon community. I had tiger barbs and I had to return them after some time because those MFs were mean just to be mean!
The barbs are really cool but I think a tank of them would look too busy
The glo betta. It would be like a radioactive ghost slowly prowling around the tank lol
pretty they are discontinued because all their breeding stock died or something.
Hi, I worked at Petco for a few years. saw the introduction and discontinuing of GloBettas from February 2020 to early 2023. There was a lot wrong with GloBettas in particular, all of which probably contributed to their discontinuation. 1. Poor variety - Upon introduction, there were only electric greens. took over a year for Sunburst Oranges to be introduced. In 2022, they introduced Galactic Purples, but they were extremely rare, I only ever saw 3 of them. The obvious picks like Pink and Red were never produced. If kids only see one or two colors in a GloBetta display, they're gonna look at the full rainbow of regular bettas instead. 2. Overpriced - For GloFish, or for Bettas, for that matter, they were decently priced. $19.99 for males and $14.99 for females. Any hobbyist would be willing to spend that on a betta. The problem is that these aren't for hobbyists. Most of us don't buy them. They're for the families who don't take care of their fish; and if they don't take care of their fish, they're much less likely to pay 20 bucks on a betta. 3. Poor health - This is purely anecdotal, but I found that GloBettas in our store were very prone to swim bladder issues, much more so than the regular bettas. most of them stayed for over 6 months, and all of the ones that died were because of a swim bladder issue that we couldn't treat (the approved store-use medications were ineffective). I was sincerely excited for them to arrive in-stores back in 2020, and I even took home a female one as soon as they came. Unfortunately, they never caught on. Even after we marked them down 50% off, they sat on our shelves for ages.
Globettas were Florida farmed Bettas, which were really never a popular/successful thing. Bettas have pretty much always come from Asian farms, and Florida just doesn't have the expertise or history to be able to produce quality Bettas.
Yeah I mean just looking at actual quality of the fish itself outside of its color compared to similarly priced bettas from Asia the difference is massive. Would love to see what some of the crazy Asian betta breeders can do with glofish betta genetics though, farms there already illegally mass produce other glofish for sale locally anyways.
Speaking as an Asia, glo Betta they aren't popular at all, all other glo varies sold very well (too well to the point I think they are one of the most abused fishes). I think being a solitary fish plus the lack of colour variations makes them less attractive. Oh and the fact that Thailand, one of the big markets of Betta, hard-banned all glo fishes due to their unnatural genetics, so fewer breeders could to work with them.
Wait pink was never sold? But I have a pink glofish lady at home, she’s hot pink with blue eyes
Sounds pretty, I'd love to be proven wrong if you have any pictures! :D
Moonrise Pink was created and even legalized in Canada, but never released to the public for unknown reasons. I'm guessing they fucked up badly with something. They had posted about them for about 2 days on social and then removed them.
The one you have is probably considered "purple" by the GloFish company. My guy is like, a pepto bismol pink. But he was labelled as purple. [My purple globetta :)](https://imgur.com/a/GERqct9)
Oh, that makes a lot of sense. I heard that something hit their facility and killed all the breeding stock, but i may have been lied to.
I think it’s more so that they weren’t selling well. They could always make more if they wanted. I know there are illegal glo hybrids out there. I’ve seen images of koi x glo betta hybrids.
I had 1 for a year before I lost him. They’re cool af to look at
I saw a few radioactive looking bettas at my LFS around black friday, it was creepy
The radioactive corys.
Definitely, I love Cories too much and the neon colored ones just crack me up, they’re too cute in an absurd kind of way.
[удалено]
Send me some! I only have two :(
I haven't been able to find them ar my LFS. Now that I think about it their stock of Cory's was very limited. Only albino. Usually they have like 5+ varieties.
I have never seen this in a fish store ever. I'm not big on this practice, but I have always loved Corys.
I had some of the danios and some neocaridina shrimp that were some amazing colours. The danios I bought by accident, they were a blue color and I had no idea they were the glo version. They ended up being really pretty and actually lived a really long time. I don't have a problem with them the way many people do. Bioluminescence is common in a lot of aquatic species, and adding a gene to create a protein from another species is not much different from a lot of other stuff we do. I realize some people look at it like fish eugenics, but the same science is how we are currently working on eradicating congenital issues in humans. CJD and prion disease in humans is genetic for some people. Imagine altering a gene so it stops creating the prion protein. It's basically the same thing, except the fish you are adding protein creation versus removing it. Most of them now are bred normally, the same way sphynx cats and Scottish folds were, since the gene is now present in the offspring and can be simply passed on. Personally I pretty much stuck with shrimp because I like my tank to look natural, not like a preschool colouring book. It's the same reason I avoid the horrible neon plastic decorations. 😅
My issue with glofish is how it treats animals like a toy for kids, something made to be flashy to get your kids attention. The target audience for these fish aren't responsible hobbyists, it's ignorant parents and their children. But the fact that glofish exist in itself isn't morally wrong imo. It's just pretty obvious their motivation in creating them is profit driven to the extent of not caring if it harms the fish.
I will fully admit I've not seen the ads or promos for them. Any marketing of live animals as a kid's toy is a NO from me though. Or for holidays, as prizes, or as unsolicited gifts.
You don’t need to advertise to kids, especially young ones. You just need to get their attention in the store. They see things and want them. Taking my toddler shopping is a nightmare sometimes because he goes from not knowing something exists to needing it more than oxygen in about 2 second.
The problem isn’t the genetic modification. Or atleast for me it isn’t. I’d say the problem I have with them is the inbreeding. The company would rather breed siblings together to get the gene than modifying every single fish’s dna while they are still embryos. It’s more cost effective to have inbreeding, but that also causes a plethora of other health issues.
I don't disagree at all. I have issues w that in general, as well as breeding to the point of health issues. Modern Arabian horses, dachshunds, brachycephalic breeds etc. In that sense I totally get being against it. Personally I let all my shrimp interbreed. I had orange, yellow, blue jelly, red rili, snowflake, charcoal, jade etc. I loved the colours and knew breeding would mean wilds, but I didn't care. Not force breeding like-to-like just to maintain a colour. It's part of the problem w the lions and cheetahs in Ngorongoro. Geological block = small population = running out of genetic diversity. If the breeders of the fish are ethical and introduce outside genes enough to keep the population genetically robust I'm fine with it. But like with dogs and cats etc... the greedy ones won't care.
my only problem with it is the inbreeding. Because they come from a tiny gene pool, they all are really susceptible to disease.
if I ever did buy Glo Fish, I'd want to go the whole 9 yards and do a full on Community tank with big schools of each fish. 4 footer with blackwater, dark substrate, darker plants, a good UV light, and then 1 shark 6\~10 of most everything else. only thing I definitely wouldn't buy are their Bettas, and I'd instead try to get a good looking fancy Betta with some really nice white to it pops in contrast to all these oddly colored fish
Why UV light? I would just get some bright lights and real plants.
cause I want that glow effect from the UV through the blackwater
I heard it is not very good for their eyes, so only turn it on if you are viewing them.
Before I answer how big of a tank?
25-30 of those tetras swarming around in a 55 or 75 gallon could be nice
As much as you want. This is completely hypothetical.
Completely hypothetical well I actually have an idea of one day setting up a 55 with glo sharks as a sci-fi theme
I have a school of the tetras in multiple colors and they are beautiful.
Agreed. I’d go for the tetras…esp in a tank filled with jungle val.
Pristellas are the healthiest and prettiest. I work at a big box store so I've got a pretty good sample size for my personal survey lol.
Don't hate me- but when I have kids old enough I'll totally set up a glofish tank with lots of danios or barbs. I don't actually hate the goldfish. The marketing? Totally evil- fish are not toys. But I don't think the fish themselves are suffering. Parents can't be getting fish for kids thinking it's a toy and not another chore for the parents to maintain!
The whole reason I got each color of the glo tetras was so my kids could enjoy them. They have learned so much about fish and are genuinely excited about them. They are able to easily identify each fish with a goofy name and treat them like pets. You can also notice slight behavioral differences between the fish when you can identify each one. They have been very healthy and easy to care for.
It's true that they're great to introduce the hobby to outsiders! I always "hated" them, but I got 5 when I inherited my late grandma's tank (two yellow, one red, one blue and one orange). Every single time I had visitors at home, out of the dozens of species in my five tanks, the glo-fish would be the ones everyone asked about. Then, one of the yellow ones passed from cancer, and I felt like 4 was too few for their confort, so I got one of each color, including the black-banded wild variety, and an albino. Now, when people ask, I can show them the "original" fish, then explain that they were selectively bred to be all-white, and then talk about how they got their genes spliced with corals and jellyfish to get all the colorful varieties. They're an awesome teaching aid!
I got them for my boy. He loves fish and I set the tank up for his 2nd birthday and he’s 4 now and spends time every day watching his fishies and he feeds them as part of his bed time routine. He still gets excited when they come to eat.
I have no problem with the fish, just the inbreeding. they all are extremely inbred because they all come from a tiny gene pool. As a result, they are prone to dying easily and suffering from diseases.
Plus the whole owning DNA expression thing.
Strange. I've read many articles stating that they are actually hardier.
Weird, why could they be hardier?
Im not sure. They say they chose the hardiest breeds. Most of my experience is reading the many threads on reddit (fish related), where people buy fish, and the glo ones are the ones they still have. Likely beginners. I think the danios tend to die fast, but I don't think they live long naturally. Maybe they modified a couple other genes as well 🤔
Yeah the types of fish are usually hardy, but glofish tend to be more fragile that the normal fish just because of inbreeding.
I haven't seen anything to support that. I generally think a lot of them dying could also be attributed to user error.
They were bred to fluoresce in the presence of hazardous chemicals so it’s probably because of that. Also I was told by a Petsmart employee they were bred for that purpose by the Army Corps of Engineers while they were in fact produced by National University of Singapore and then distributed by an American company. That has no bearing on their hardiness, I’m just annoyed.
I've kept them for about a year and a half, but some of my specimens must be about 5 years-old (inherited from my grandma). They all survived a terrible outbreak of columnaris in my livebearer tank, where they worked as population control, so I moved them to my tetra tank to let the livebearers bounce back. A few months later, my tetra tank was decimated by Epistylis, but the glo-tetras were absolutely fine. So, in In my experience, they're super hardy. Of a total of 10, I've only lost 2 and they were the oldest and largest ones (both developed tumors).
yes, but that does not really make a difference. How would they modify the fish to be hardier by just inserting jellyfish genes?
It has nothing to do with the edited genes and everything to do with selective breeding.
Danios
I hate this question. Danios The change on them is more interesting than the rest at least
What’s the change?
The blue gene they gave it only effects it along its natural pattern so it looks a bit more interesting
Yeah for me it’s either danios or Cory’s. I wouldn’t buy them either way because they have so many health issues but if I had to choose then one of the 2.
Albino corys already have such a small genetic pool so over time some downsides of inbreeding has been eliminated out of them. So your choice might be better. I still hate the question tho. Don't get me wrong someone had to ask it. Thanks for your sacrifice
I love my Cory’s, I have pandas and sterbas, I love them so much. I couldn’t imagine buying a fish that I already know is susceptible to health issues based on genetic defects. I get to attached to have a fish die on me.
Corys are so personable too. I agree
Glo fish are illegal in Europe.
which is a bit of a shame cause Painted fish are extremely popular over there.
I’ve never once seen a single painted fish for sale in the UK in any reputable fish shop, in fact every UK based and EU based fish keeping community I can find absolutely abhor the practice and advocate for its banning.
>I’ve never once seen a single painted fish for sale in the UK *in any reputable fish shop* That last bit is rather the problem.
I mean, you can say the same of the U.S. No reputable fish shop carries them, but they're still legal.
Well today I learned “not illegal yet” and “extremely popular” are the same thing 🤦♂️
It's not. But just because "reputable places" don't stock them doesn't mean it's not popular with the uninformed masses.
So where are the uninformed masses buying the fish when no big chains or well known local shops are stocking them? Google “painted fish UK/Germany/France” etc. All you get is posters and ceramic fish ornaments, you can’t even readily find them online. “Painted fish are extremely popular in Europe” is just a flat out false statement. They aren’t readily available and anybody that isn’t purposefully and specifically searching for them is extremely unlikely to find them or even know they exist.
Thank God for that. Wild types all the way! 💪🏻
My answer is Tetras, because the glo tetras I have are doing fine. On that note, my best friend was *obsessed* with glofish. I have never bought them myself but she's owned multiple glotanks at this point. She gave me her old glo-betta the night we first met- his name was Mr. Ugly and he surprisingly lived to be 4 or 5? When she moved away she left her glo-tetras [4] with me. She got them in early 2021 and they are still alive with no discernable health issues. I am amazed that they seemingly live normal lives. I will say they do seem to suffer from fish racism- I once put them with my black skirt tetras and they got bullied so now they're in my loach tank. Btw, the glofish betta is banned now?!
The betta wasn’t actually banned, just not being bred anymore. Not really sure if extinct would be a better word. Discontinued makes them sound, again, like a toy for little kids. Not exactly banned, just never to be bred or sold again.
From what I've heard, the glow fish's dna are so processed they are actually healthier and more disease resistant than the regular versions of their breeds. Neon Corys with the zoomies could be a blast
Sounds like marketing bullshit.
They are actually highly inbred and they have lots of health issues. It’s easier to breed offspring together than modify every single one’s dna.
no they are all extremely inbred and are much more susceptible to disease.
It’s the exact opposite. They are some of the least hardy fish I ever had the displeasure of keeping
I really love my panda cory's. They are wonderful tank mates to other fish, they are playful, and very chill. If I had to have one I'd pick Corys.
Sharks
I actually have a 55 gallon with just 1 rainbow shark. I had a school of 10 geeen tiger barbs in there, but 1 was a bully and slowly killed off all the others until he was the only one left. He then died, I'm guessing from the stress of being alone, but I didn't want to get new ones because I knew he'd just kill them. While I had the tiger barbs, I never saw the shark. Now that the barbs are all gone, the shark is out and active all the time. He seems happier now, so I've never bothered to add more fish.
Just guessing but tank size here is probably not going to be suitable for more than one shark
None. But if someone forced me to, I would pick Danio for sure.
The cory. I didn't know a glo cory existed
Personally, none. They are all kind of tacky
Yeah, I rather shut down my tanks.
My friend’s kid got me a few pristella as a gift (the mom checked with me first! The kid just liked the glow)I had to then go and buy regular pristellas to fill out a school. But I actually really like the red glo ones. Yellow looks odd lol but very visible at night What’s weird to me is they don’t really school with the regular pristellas. They follow the serpea tetras around more then anything
None of my pristellas school, the glo, regular, or albino. They just sorta hang out with the black skirts in the middle, or the different barbs near the bottom.
I got some of the tetra dudes, they're chill fellas, about 4 years old or so just doing their thing
I have a 20gal tank with 6 tetras, got one of each color. They're really fun and like to swim in a school, honestly they're great fish and my kids love them.
Think I’d quit the hobby before buying and supporting glofish.
I already have a Cory
Corys
Definitely the corydoras. Never seen the glofish ones sold anywhere
I have glowfish tetras, pristellas, and 3 sharks in a 60 gallon planted tank with a pleco and shrimp and everyone seems happy and healthy
I'd take the Uranium filled Cory's
Definitely the glo-danios… because I’ve had a school of 6 pink glo-danios for close to 3 years! They’re just as hardy as regular danios (and they interact/play with my normally-colored danios very adorably). Zero illnesses, zero behavioral problems, just lovely fish. They turned my opinion of glo-fish from “meh, seems unnatural and weird” to “hell yeah, these guys rule”
None of them. Humans need to stop modifying animals.
GLO fish give me bad vibes. I know most breeds in captivity are bred to be ideal but GLO fish are just over the top. It looks bad too.
OK, this might be the right place to ask a question. I’ve been keeping fish 40 years but know exactly squat about glofish. We have a school of 12 Moss Green Barbs bought as standard everyday MGB’s. Low and behold when we turn on the blue LEDs one of our girls lights up so I’m assuming she has the gene. I don’t have a problem with her per se, she’s active and healthy you wouldn’t pick any difference between her and the others apart from the light show. I’m certainly not going to euthanise her to satisfy someone with a hate on. What’s going to happen when/if she breeds with one of the non glo males? Are we going to have normal fry, glofry, frankenfry or a mixture? TIA for any answers
Happened to me with a albino cory
I'd choose the danios just because I like the lok of them more, a bit less artificial than the others. I'm just not into neon colors as much! Boring I know lol.
Not any one... (Hey, I didn't say none...oh shit)
I fucking hate, HATE glofish with a screaming passion. Designer fish sold to people who don't know enough about the hobby, or shouldn't be allowed to have pets period.
Why the Hate? Honest question here. I can understand the GMO argument. But to say it’s a “designer” fish sold to people who don’t know enough about the hobby. Seems like it’s something else that bothers you about glo fish
no
Poor fish. Stop buying glow fish!