Dyed anemones and GloFish TM

[BonsaiNut]

I was doing some searches about dyeing anemones, and I came across an interesting number of articles about GloFishTM. I use the "TM" here because not only is the name of the fish a registered trademark, but the process to make the fish is PATENTED. That's because this fish was originally "created" to help detect pollution by fluorescing in the presence of environmental toxins. It is the first genetically modified aquarium fish (that I am aware of) that was genetically modified to glow. I am assuming that similar processes could be applied to any fish and/or potentially any living creature(?) since the green genetic material originally came from a jellyfish, the red genetic material came from a coral, etc.

Not dyed, but is it "artificial"? This is not the same as selective breeding mind you - it is literally taking genetic material from a completely different creature and introducing it to another.

Glowing red anemones? Is this good? Is it sad?

 

[bradleym]

I wonder, if the anemone were to glow bright enough, could it survive in lower light levels than that normally accepted for that species?? Interesting...

 

[SkullV]

I see nothing wrong with the Glo Fish. They are not dyed, they live full healthy lives and look kind of cool doing it. It's not like when you stick a bleached anemone in a bowl of dye and sell it as a healthy anemone.

 

[D-Nak]

This is a tough one -- since they are genetically altered, there's no apparent health risk. I personally would not buy an "altered" anemone or fish since I'm trying to replicate a natural reef (realizing that I'm not geographically accurate, but that's another topic).

I wonder what the relationship with zooxanthellae and the altered anemone would be, and how it would affect he overall color of the anemone. Since the zooxanthellae aren't actually part of the anemone, it wouldn't be possible to genetically alter it, correct?

 

[Reefvette]

Bonsai i saw a ritteri this morning The foot was changing from purple to orange. It was all hacked up from being collected. I bought a deep pure base mag that looks like its grey

 

[anemone fan]

The glofish don't actually glow and the protein they are producing is almost the same as the protein many anemones already make. Genetic modification may allow for brighter 'glowing' aka fluorescing or different colors (take blue fluorescing protein and put it into a BTA -> BBTA? who knows!) I see nothing wrong with this if the animals aren't allowed to interact with wild populations and these are aquacultured specimens, but to start you have to inject the eggs with the mutagen so all cells have the extra DNA and therefore pass it to their offspring (something which we may not be able to do).