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01/12/2004 Entry: "New Article: The GloFish Chronicles!"

Today's article examines GloFish, the hot new pet fad that lets people buy "glowing" fish for just five bucks a piece. You've probably seen 'em mentioned in the news over the past few months, and the story was just too offbeat to pass up on. Do GloFish match the hype? Not really. I'm sure others will say differently, but my batch wasn't anywhere near as "otherworldly" as all of the reports and debates suggested. They're just fish that are kinda sorta shiny. Article provides close-up photos of the three I bought, plus an extra close-up photo of their disgusting fish food. Unless you've got a blacklight, they're nothing to go nuts over.

REPLIES: 112 comments

Awesome, Matt. :) Don't even have to clean its tank...

Chestnuts roasted by Wes @ 01/12/2004 01:08 AM EST

On second thought, I guess you do. These things aren't quite as cool anymore. :/

Chestnuts roasted by Wes @ 01/12/2004 01:09 AM EST

Yes, finally another pet article.

Chestnuts roasted by Rood @ 01/12/2004 01:17 AM EST

I have to say, after almost 10 years in pet stores, those would be the first "craze" involving fish I've ever seen (fortunately, I'm no longer in that business).

Matt, if you want happier danios (including the third-man-out) get more of them, even just the regular zebra (or pearl, or leopard danios for that matter). They are always happier in bigger groups. And some plants (better than ornaments, but not as fun) would help too.

Of course, in my opinion, minnows (that's what danios are, sorry) are just feeders. Even glowy ones.

And for people who like their animals genetically altered, there really are scientists out there working on things like cats that lack the gene to produce allergenic dander (there's stuff for dogs, too, but I forget what). I can't see anything going wrong when science meets commercial pet keeping. After all, pet keepers are always responsible (pirrhanas, snakeheads, walking catfish...).

I am, however, glad to have seen the glowfish in real, undoctored pictures, just to judge for myself.

Chestnuts roasted by Sean @ 01/12/2004 01:43 AM EST

Glo fish, glo fish, glo fish your good night friends! Oh come on I couldn;t have been the only one thinking it...
We have a beta (siamese fishie thing) named Fred. He has lived here for close to 2 years. We did get another who was psychotic so we called him Norman Bates. He died after continually bashing his head into the side of his little fishie tank. I think Fred, in the tank next door, talked him into it like Hannibal Lecter did to that other guy in Silence of the Lambs.
You could always clean up something you have lying around that is plastic and put it into their tank instead of fake grass. Fred has glowing grass. It glows for maybe 5 minutes after the lights go off. He's also got a dragon thing made out of ceramic or hell if I know. It cost a small fortune at Petco (where the pets go).

Chestnuts roasted by Killer Duck @ 01/12/2004 02:07 AM EST

Whoa. o.o I just read about that on the Something Awful Forums! Talk about coincidence..Or maybe the fact that I might be some sort of psychic lady! Kick butt!

But yay! Articles about animals! I love em! Now I have to find out if they sell those fish in any pet shops in Alaska, Bah. Humbug.

Chestnuts roasted by Spacey @ 01/12/2004 02:25 AM EST

I'm willing to bet that one is preggers. You might have yourself a glo-fish moneymachine here.

If you can figure out how to get the sperm in that little tiny fish, that is.

Chestnuts roasted by stark23x @ 01/12/2004 02:43 AM EST

that first pic is cool, the one from the official site that is. i set it as my wallpaper >_<

Chestnuts roasted by Rachel Cakes @ 01/12/2004 04:17 AM EST

i wanna be engineered so i can glow

Chestnuts roasted by Mr. Zig @ 01/12/2004 04:51 AM EST

I never thought that anyone could write anything interesting never mind funny about fish - I am now thinking of getting a small fish tank!

Go Siamesie!

Chestnuts roasted by The Big G @ 01/12/2004 07:30 AM EST

My sister had some glo-fish about two months ago, I never got to see them in person but from what she told me they too were quite unimpressive.

Chestnuts roasted by The Dude @ 01/12/2004 08:54 AM EST

Ya know as an artist, over the years it seems that I use fish in my imagery often. There is something truely interesting about what they symbolize and just the pure asthetic quality of them too.

But I dont care for them as pets. They're just kinda boring. NOW a glowing fish, thats pet worthy. I'll give 'em a few more years until all that gene tampering settles into place and they start glowing real good rather than just kinda being shiny.

Chestnuts roasted by Don't Touch, Willy. @ 01/12/2004 09:26 AM EST

Yes! I *LOVE* these animal articles. They are my favorite, along with the food reviews.

More about Danios:
Yes, they do like larger groups, they are a schooling fish, and are happiest in groups of 6 or more.

I know you have a bigger fish tank, and you may want to consider moving them in there, as they are VERY active fish, never stop moving, and they love to have room to roam. In smaller tanks they get stressed out.

Keep up the good work!!

Chestnuts roasted by B-dawg @ 01/12/2004 10:16 AM EST

They've already been moved to the bigger tank -- though what I'd really like to do is get a small saltwater tank going, either for a mantis shrimp, cleaner shrimp, starfish, or any combination of the three that won't kill each other.

By the way, the woman at the pet store mentioned that GloFish would be arriving in different colors (yellow, green) soon.

Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 01/12/2004 10:20 AM EST

So Matt how soon till your glo fish start to fight crime? The power to glow is an awesome power and remember with great power comes great responsibility.

Chestnuts roasted by Bright Noah @ 01/12/2004 10:22 AM EST

It looks like you have a female and two males, that might be why the one is left as the odd man out. Just a thought...

Chestnuts roasted by Happy Scrappy Hero Pup @ 01/12/2004 10:34 AM EST

Matt, you mention sugar gliders briefly, but never really give your thoughts on them. just wondering what you thought about em' I was thinking of getting 2 a while ago, but I kept hearing horror stories about the noises they make, and their smell.

They can't smell worse then my friends ferret.

Chestnuts roasted by chad @ 01/12/2004 10:37 AM EST

I haven't actually seen one up close, so I couldn't tell ya. They're cute, but for people like us (really crowded apartment with loads of hiding spots and cats), they had "bad idea" written all over 'em.

Ferrets are also illegal in NY (at least in my part of NY), though I can grab 'em anytime with a five minute hike into Jersey. Would've definitely bought one if we didn't have cats.

Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 01/12/2004 10:42 AM EST

Hey Matt.

Mantis shrimp are probably the coolest animals out there, but they won't be living with anything else. They have a tendency to kill everything. And if it's a "club" type, they also have a tendency to bust through aquaria. Get a spear one, keep it in its own 5 gal aquarium.

Or better yet, get a pistol shrimp. They're colorful, mostly harmless, but they make a sound not unlike a gunshot (or cracking glass) to stun prey (small fish only). It's great fun when you forget about them, and then think that your tank is about to explode.

I forgot to mention before, the fat danio that you have doesn't look gravid (egg-bearing). It looks congenitally defective--the spine is bent. We used to see minnows like that all the time. If it stays like it is, no problem. If it gets worse, there's always that shrimp...

One thing's for sure--if you do get breeding glowfish (assuming that they aren't irradiated to sterilize them--again, science meets pet commerce) you'll want to keep a tight lid on the tank. Danios are known for swimming against a current (like an external filter) to lay eggs at the high point (better oxygenation). If there isn't a filter, then the water flow won't be high enough to encourage them anyway.

Chestnuts roasted by Sean @ 01/12/2004 11:09 AM EST

Sean -- use the search on the main page if you're interested in my take on Mantis shrimp. I love the guys. :)

This pet store by me -- one with little worry about legal issues -- sells a lot of great sea creatures. They often have Mantis shrimp, including some specimens that just blow away everything else I've seen in terms of color and size. One monster had to be 8-9 inches (or at least, that's what it seemed), with incredible colors. Even at 60 bucks, it felt like a bargain. Alas, I don't have a saltwater setup.

Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 01/12/2004 11:18 AM EST

You want entertainment, get the pistol shrimp and a shrimp goby. they are the tag team of the tank. building, digging, eating. its good stuff...

Chestnuts roasted by Draven @ 01/12/2004 11:54 AM EST

I recommend a Fred Saberhagen Bezerker story called "Smasher" for a great use for mantis shrimp. Bloody water hides the slasher, heed them, seed them....

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 01/12/2004 12:04 PM EST

Am I the only one who finds fish a tad creepy? Plus, they don't really do much, and have short memory spans. No offense to fish owners though, I'll stick to dogs thank you.

Chestnuts roasted by Rob @ 01/12/2004 01:05 PM EST

'Cause someone has to say it: Two goldfish were in their tank. One said to the other, "You drive, I'll man the guns."

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 01/12/2004 01:16 PM EST

One female two males...she must be popular. With two new articles I am trying to keep up but it's so difficult. Oh well...tonight is "study night" when I go to friends house we spend an hour studying and several more hours getting drunk. It's all good.

Chestnuts roasted by Killer Duck @ 01/12/2004 01:32 PM EST

I have seen som green ones at the pet store where i live, the look pretty cool under the fluorescent.

Chestnuts roasted by OtherMatt @ 01/12/2004 01:40 PM EST

I'm a freaking danio fan. Never heard of glowing ones, but the regular ones are neat to watch.

We did used to keep a type of fish called a neon tetra (I think), which was definitely way neater than these GloFish. They didn't actually glow, but in the right light, you'd almost think they did. They were blue and red. Real pretty sons-of-guns. Sad thing is, it's almost impossible to find those buggers anymore.

Chestnuts roasted by Jessie @ 01/12/2004 01:57 PM EST

I purchased penetentary 2.. got it in the mail over the weekend. Hilarious. We turned it into a drinking game with the number of "suckas" used. Whole lot of fun. something not mentioned in Matts review, which was the funniest part of the movie... half dead gets out of prison, and is in the backseat with his friends... he see's a hot chick and says "check out the turd cutter on that sista"

he called her ass a turd cutter. I laughed for like.... 25 minutes.

Chestnuts roasted by chad @ 01/12/2004 01:59 PM EST

I will wait for the accompanying animated series and merchandise before I get involved with Glofish.

Although I have blocked it from my memory, I believe "The Sixth Day" with Arnold has something to do with pet genetics.

Chestnuts roasted by Tobias @ 01/12/2004 02:07 PM EST

Dude, your fish look pissed!

Chestnuts roasted by j..k.kh @ 01/12/2004 02:22 PM EST

GloFish Chronicles, a Quinn Martin production.

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 01/12/2004 02:23 PM EST

I'm not sure if all these fad pets are good for our soul. Not saying I believe in a soul or vice/versa
but buying living things then letting em' die because the fad is over seems wrong. I'm not saying ANY of you are letting your pets die once your bored with 'em it's just the feel I get from this blog...
Please tell me I'm wrong.

Chestnuts roasted by turkeys can't fly? @ 01/12/2004 03:38 PM EST

I've never had fish so maybe I don't know what I'm talking about.

Chestnuts roasted by turkeys can't fly? @ 01/12/2004 03:39 PM EST

Yeah, genetically-modified pets are cool, precautionary principle be damned! Seriously, if scientists adhered strictly to the precautionary principle for such things, there would never be any innovations in anything because you can never prove that nothing unexpected will ever go wrong. In any event, I think, if those fish were released into most environments in North America, they wouldn't survive for long, having been bred to be completely dependent on man, and, if one guy accidentally released two or three into the environment and it was a compatible environment, I don't know if there would be enough of a breeding pool for it to be a real concern... wait, where are the non-glow zebra fish native to, exactly?

Anyhow... on a somewhat related matter, you all know nature's glow-in-the-dark fishes, the lantern fish, right? I know, it's really just that one little dangly tendril that glows. They only live in the deepest, darkest waters of the ocean, far off the continental shelf, and especially in the trenches, correct? So, one thing I've always wondered... if you brought a lantern fish up to near the surface somehow, would it just explode like humans on Mars in Total Recall because the body of the lantern fish is designed only for intensely high water pressure? And, if that's the case, would a fish from near the surface be crushed by the pressure at lantern fish depths? So why didn't the water pressure seem to affect Marlin and Dory when they met the lantern fish in that one scene in Finding Nemo? That one scientific inaccuracy bothered me a lot more than Dory being able to read English, actually...

Chestnuts roasted by Steve Brandon @ 01/12/2004 03:40 PM EST

Oh, sorry, I meant "Angler Fish", not "Lantern Fish".

Chestnuts roasted by Steve Brandon @ 01/12/2004 03:50 PM EST

my roommates fed my peacock mantis a mouse once. it was rough. he also maimed a crayfish his own size while we video taped it. i miss apocolypse. here's a pic of her:

http://predatoryfish.net/pics/narc/slimp.jpg

Chestnuts roasted by nick @ 01/12/2004 04:40 PM EST

Thoughts on the subject of fish:

1. I always have these stressful dreams where I have to keep fish from dying because something happened to their water...

2. My betta died recently, his corpse was completely devoured by the tons of snails in the little tank in under a day...

3. My cousin had the most evil bastard betta EVER. He'd snap his head right at you (wherever you were) and flare his gills, then he'd look away... AND DO IT AGAIN (over and over...)! The fish belonged to my younger cousin, but she was so afraid of it, she kept it in my older cousin's room.

Chestnuts roasted by Rewolf J @ 01/12/2004 04:43 PM EST

p.s., glofish are sterile to my knowledge. the green ones came out first but for some reason they're only selling red ones? odd.

Chestnuts roasted by nick @ 01/12/2004 04:44 PM EST

Snails will eat a fish's carcass? Cool! We haven't abandoned the damn beta yet. If anything, he gets royal treatment. And dehydrated worm things. Though what Matt got for those glo fish looks absolutely nasty and I think I'd puke if that's what Fred ate, glass jar or not.

Chestnuts roasted by Killer Duck @ 01/12/2004 05:01 PM EST

Name your fish ChocoDile! Or King Don.

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 01/12/2004 05:33 PM EST

Matt,you feed your fish plankton,the coolest character on Spongebob Squarepants? For shame!

Chestnuts roasted by Overlord @ 01/12/2004 06:42 PM EST

The only pet I ever owned that actually belonged to me (as opposed to technically belonging to another member of my family) was my angel fish, Angelina (named for the heroine of the books Katharine Turner's character wrote in "Romancing the Stone"). I know fish aren't supposed to have great memories, but I swear she knew me, and not just because I fed her. She was a great pet, but she outlived all of the other fish in the tank and was the last one before she finally died of assumeably old age.

Dad had a Japanese fighting fish he named Kong (don't ask). Kong is about the only fighting fish I know of who wouldn't fight. In fact, he had a chunk of upper fin missing because the other fish literally picked on him, and he wouldn't defend himself. All things considered, I'm surprised he lasted as long as he did.

Matt, I think your fish are handsome, whether they glow or not. They're a really nice shade of red-gold, anyway, more gold than real goldfish. I can't afford even the smallest pet at the moment - I can barely afford to feed myself. After all the pets my family had that died, ran away, or had to be gotten rid of due to lack of funds and/or because we just didn't know how to care for the darn things, I've promised myself that I'll never have a living creature until I know how to take care of it and I have the money to properly take care of it.

Chestnuts roasted by starwenn @ 01/12/2004 09:40 PM EST

I want a sugar glider!!
I'm smuggling one back when i go to Australia..hehe

Chestnuts roasted by Allie @ 01/12/2004 10:03 PM EST

Steve Brandon: Actually, the deeps sea fish do explode. Not in a huge bang, but more slowly, with gases expanding and causing small bursts in the body. The trawlers end up with squishy dead things (which is why they don't show up much in aquariums).

And yes Matt, I've seen your article on mantis shrimp. And I also think they are probably the coolest invertebrate alive today. The pistol shrimp was a suggestion for a cool shrimp that could be kept with other animals.

And it amazes me about those mantis shrimp--some people go crazy trying to kill them (usually in heavily stocked fish tanks) while other people will spend $60 on them. If you see the fish I keep at my site, you can probably tell that I owuld be a person who would definitely keep them. If I ever kept saltwater (I haven't. But I've had brackish moray eels).

Chestnuts roasted by Sean @ 01/12/2004 10:15 PM EST

We have a fish that screams.

Well, it certainly yells pretty loudly. It's some sort of spotted catfish/tank cleaner guy. He's from Wal*mart, home of the bright blue tanks full of dead, white-eyed guppies. I swear, this fish has PTSD. We were moving, so Mr. Trajeal scooped the fish out of the tank to deposit him into a temporary holding tank, but the fish jumped out of the net and landed on the floor. His mouth opened and he immediately started screaming. I've never heard a fish scream before, and this was surreal. Mr. Trajeal dumped him into the smaller tank, but the fish has never been the same. He literally spends all day zooming around the bottom of the tank w/ this crazed look in his eye. I think he's waiting for the day when he can grow lungs, crawl out of the tank and strangle us in our sleep.

Chestnuts roasted by trajeal @ 01/12/2004 11:17 PM EST

Screaming fish? Creeptacular.

Chestnuts roasted by Allie @ 01/13/2004 12:23 AM EST

I just rememberd.
I used to have a bunch of zebra tetras...They ate eachother. Seriously. they also ate my Pleco...poor poor Jim Morrison...
Didnt matter how much i fed the little dipwads they still ate each other, i went from 22 (here in Can they're only like 50 cents a piece) to 4 in less then a month...

Chestnuts roasted by Allie @ 01/13/2004 12:31 AM EST

actally, its been proven that fish do have more than a three second memory. they also have the ability to associate someting with something else, ie a buzzer= food.

Chestnuts roasted by Rachel Cakes @ 01/13/2004 01:42 AM EST

GOD! No wonder I have nightmares about fish!

Starwenn: How about a grasshopper? They cost NOTHING to feed (just give it a pile of moist grass every few days) and it's just a dumb bug so you don't feel too bad if it dies.

Chestnuts roasted by Rewolf J @ 01/13/2004 01:43 AM EST

I want a fish tank but my mom says it's too hard to take care of it. Bleh. I can do it. -_-

Chestnuts roasted by Adrastia @ 01/13/2004 01:53 AM EST

A few years ago, a team of geneticists, in tandem with a Belgian surrealist artist, spliced jellyfish genes into rabbits and created rabbits that glow in the dark.
Now, picture doing this with chinchillas! Pii-KA!

Chestnuts roasted by G'Tron @ 01/13/2004 04:34 AM EST

yorktown technologies, where more fish than fish is our motto

Chestnuts roasted by urquidez @ 01/13/2004 08:38 AM EST

"'Cause someone has to say it: Two goldfish were in their tank. One said to the other, "You drive, I'll man the guns.""

For some reason, I just imagined this as something that would appear on Family Guy. Strange.

Chestnuts roasted by Matt (#2?) @ 01/13/2004 09:53 AM EST

Just saw this article on Yahoo! News:

click here

Chestnuts roasted by B-Dawg @ 01/13/2004 10:39 AM EST

I had a goldfish at a very young age until my mother killed it accidently. For years she promised to buy me a new one, but it was not until I was about 12 that I actually did. She came through, though. I got a 30 gallon aquarium w/ all of the toys. I kept various kinds of fish through the years and even set it up as an atrium. I had frogs, salamanders, crabs, and fish all living in there own section. They all got along together, too. Eventually my friend had some parahna that he did not want anymore, so I took care of them. I started to raise feeder fish to feed them. They were very timid of humans (you could stick your hand in the water without being skeletonized) but would go crazy if I through in a fish. They died one day while I was on vacation when the heater broke and boiled them. My brother (who was supposed to be watching out for them) called me to ask if I wanted Pirahna Soup. Jerk.
I have a 125 gallon tank now, but i have to save up another $3000 at least to get the rest of the supplies for my future salt water set up.

Chestnuts roasted by Stilewalker @ 01/13/2004 01:26 PM EST

As a well seasoned fishkeeper who currently has 3 active tanks I consider those glofish as cruel attempts to make fishkeeping more appealable to the general public .
This procedure which adds coral DNA into the fish at a young age thus giving them their unatural luminescence (which disappears with time) stresses the fish, causing them to be prone to diseases and parasites in the long time future
If you want real Glofish than get a shoal of Neon tetras or its stablemate the Cardinal Tetra.
Both of these fish have a natural luminescence, don't cost 5 bucks per fish and will probably last longer than your glofish providing you have an established aquaria
The only I'd use those glofish for would be treats for my Oscar (a large carnivorous fish from the order ciclidae)

Chestnuts roasted by Prowlus @ 01/13/2004 02:36 PM EST

Is they like Glo-worms? Oh, And Taquitos. Someone tell matt to reply to me... i really think he'd like the shrieking...

Chestnuts roasted by FuzzyFurryFoxie @ 01/13/2004 06:09 PM EST

I too have wanted some glowfish, so I tried to make them out of some goldfish and fiestaware dishes. The fish seemed to like the plates in their water, but after a week it did not give them a glow. Tried also to apply some glow in the dark stickers but they would not stay on. Gave up after that.

Chestnuts roasted by MangusDangus @ 01/13/2004 06:27 PM EST

silly silly person. i used to own hundreds of fish and i've never heard of GloFish, look more like funky neon tetras. that's all they are-tetras and the other one looks like a guppie, the features, you know fin shape and placement aren't the same on the two so it looks like you may have been jyped (sp?) i'm so damn technical....

Chestnuts roasted by MallcoreMotion @ 01/13/2004 08:33 PM EST

dude matt, do an article about pro-wrestling...ur the wrestling fan right?

Chestnuts roasted by AFI_RT_Jeff Hardy @ 01/13/2004 09:30 PM EST

I have _never_ heard of Glofish before today...

Chestnuts roasted by jjgoreha @ 01/13/2004 11:05 PM EST

My cousin owns a petstore. I can honsestly say they refuse to carry these. Neon Tetras put these things to shame.

Chestnuts roasted by Smalley @ 01/14/2004 01:11 AM EST

I read the entire article, and Matt fails to answer the most important question about glofish.

What do glofish taste like?

If you're not going to give the glofish the ol x-entertainment taste test, at least you could let us know if the stuff in the glass jar tastes as nasty as it looks...

Chestnuts roasted by Nonesuch @ 01/14/2004 01:11 AM EST

I bought some japenese Koi today cost me $6 a piece..and they're huge :D I need a name for the second one though, any ideas? The other one is called Inspector Gadget. I cant find a cool name for the other one...*sigh* help?

Chestnuts roasted by Allie @ 01/14/2004 01:20 AM EST

Uhhh... Dr. Claw?

Chestnuts roasted by Rewolf J @ 01/14/2004 01:38 AM EST

Where can I get a dog that flies?

Chestnuts roasted by The Adamantium Elbow @ 01/14/2004 05:26 AM EST

The second koi should be called "Chief Quimby". Unless they try to kill each other.

I can also lay claim to having kept thousands of different fish species. I always hated the altered fish--the painted ones drive me crazy (the see-through fish with neon colour injected). Glofish are just the next step in manipulating fish buyers. And I have to agree, a tank full of Neon or Cardinal tetras would be way more impressive.

Trajeal--most catfish can scream (talking catfish being very good at it). They squeeze air out from their swimbladders.

More fun are puffer fish, who can do the same thing. Except they get all puffy. And can bite really hard, with really sharp beaks.

Chestnuts roasted by Sean @ 01/14/2004 08:15 AM EST

Oh, ouch. Fish that scream AND bite. I think I'm glad that I don't live in the water.

Another Finding Nemo inconsistency: Why did the filter tube stay filled w/ water after Nemo stopped the motor w/ the pebble? Wouldn't the water all have drained down back into the tank once the motor stopped?

OT: What code is everyone using to do italics, etc? I tried [i][/i] but it didn't turn when I previewed my comment.
TIA

Name for the Koi: Dangermouse. They're both cartoon inspectors from the 80's w/ arch nemesises (nemisi?) that had hidden faces.

Chestnuts roasted by trajeal @ 01/14/2004 09:12 AM EST

Baron von Greenback didn't have a hidden face!

Chestnuts roasted by Nachokhaki @ 01/14/2004 02:24 PM EST

"Aye, Baroni!"

Chestnuts roasted by Nachokhaki @ 01/14/2004 02:24 PM EST

If you think screaming and biting fish are scary enough to keep you out of the water, be glad I didn't go into detail about a little catfish called Candiru.

And that's all I'm going to say about that.

Chestnuts roasted by Sean @ 01/14/2004 05:01 PM EST

Candiru?!? owowowowowow! Just the name makes me walk funny. When I first heard about those fishies, I almost screamed right there in the library.

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 01/14/2004 05:31 PM EST

there actually IS a green bunny rabbit, but again, you can only see it under UV. In ordinary light, she's a plain ol' albino. Her name is Alba, and you can learn about this adorable mutant at http://www.ekac.org/gfpbunny.html#gfpbunnyanchor

Chestnuts roasted by thingamus @ 01/14/2004 05:40 PM EST

Why do I kill fish so quickly... oh well.

Chestnuts roasted by 29 - MR. T @ 01/14/2004 07:53 PM EST

If you want to see the danios glow just put them under a black light. I'm suprised the fish store didn't do that to prove they glow and help justify the price.

Chestnuts roasted by Katuluu @ 01/15/2004 12:11 AM EST

Ah yes...Alba, the Glo-Bunny...I wrote about Eduardo Kac (the artist who collaborated w/the geneticists) in my master's thesis. Interesting guy. Also interesting that someone should mention glowing chinchillas...when I first heard about the Glo-Bunny, my friend and I discussed the idea of breeding glow-in-the-dark chinchillas, putting oversize hamster tubes (you know, those clear-orange plastic Hartz "habitats" that our small rodent friends seem to enjoy so much) all over the ceiling of his studio, and letting about 25 of those glowing chinchillas run around in there whenever he had parties at his place. Super fun! We're still waiting for science to catch up...

Chestnuts roasted by cyberelf @ 01/15/2004 03:09 AM EST

Oh, and a fish story too (I figure since I've never posted before, I should try to catch up a bit) - Had a goldfish...won him at the state fair at that booth where you lob a ping-pong ball into a table full of fishbowls, and if it landed in a fishbowl, you won a goldfish. Seems cruel now that I look back at it, but I was like 8 at the time and the possibility of winning a live goldfish was irresistible. So anyway I have my fishie (imaginatively named Goldie), and I go away on summer vacation, and have to leave it with my cousin, who has a big aquarium w/lots of fishies, so I'm thinking it'll be like Club Med for my fish, since at my house it lived alone in a tiny round bowl. Come back from vacation, and lo and behold...my cousin's fishies had EATEN MY FISH'S EYES...AND IT WAS STILL ALIVE! Holy crap. But bless its heart, it lived for another year or so...it would just swim along the bottom of the bowl, scooping up whatever food it found there. I renamed it Ray Charles. It was kinda freaky to look at though, swimmin' around with no eyes. Perhaps that helps explain why I am the way I am today.

Chestnuts roasted by cyberelf @ 01/15/2004 03:18 AM EST

CyberElf, might I just say one thing.... AAAAAAHHHHHHGGGGGEEEEEKKKKKK! Great, a new inmage to feature in my nightmares.

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 01/15/2004 11:20 AM EST

trajeal: No, you can't do italics the vBulletin message board way. You gotta do them the HTML way, which is very similar to the vBulletin way, except with the lesser than (points left) and greater than (points right) symbols around the letters instead of the square brackets: (lesser than symbol)i(greater than symbol)word(lesser than symbol)/i(greater than symbol) = word. Same for bold.

Chestnuts roasted by Steve Brandon @ 01/15/2004 01:56 PM EST

Now, if anyone wants to know how to make a word with a hyperlink, that's a tad more complicated because it doesn't bear much resemblance to vBulletin:

(lesser than symbol)a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/"(greater than symbol)Rotten Tomatoes(lesser than symbol)/a(greater than symbol) = Rotten Tomatoes.

Don't forget the quotation marks around the URL.

Chestnuts roasted by Steve Brandon @ 01/15/2004 02:05 PM EST

kingklash � glad I could help :)

Chestnuts roasted by cyberelf @ 01/15/2004 06:02 PM EST

Thanks! That question was so old, I was sure I wasn't going to get an answer for it.

A friend of mine had a fish that had all of the fins eaten off, but it continued to live. It must have been top heavy, b/c it would just sorta bounce around the bottom of the tank on its face, w/ its tail sticking straight up. It would try to turn, esp when there was food floating down around it, but it never could manage. It lived for about a year like that.

I want to try this now FISH!

Chestnuts roasted by trajeal @ 01/16/2004 09:35 AM EST

Trying again: Fa-fa-fa-fishy!

Chestnuts roasted by trajeal @ 01/16/2004 09:37 AM EST

Ooh, yay!

Chestnuts roasted by trajeal @ 01/16/2004 09:37 AM EST

Prowlus: The method you mentioned for introducing the coral genes into the GloFish was used in the first generation of the fish. Unlike the various types of artificially dyed fish on the market, the GloFish actually breed true. I'll admit that I am not thrilled by florescent danios, at least as a commercial product. On the other hand, the same company that produced these fish has also been working on actual bioluminscent aquarium fish, something that strikes me as much neater. (A florescent object glows when you energize it with an outside lightsource. A luminescent object glows due to an energy reaction within the object. Thus the glowy paint is florescent while a light bulb is luminescent)

Chestnuts roasted by Voxpopuli @ 01/16/2004 12:55 PM EST

The pet store I got mine at simply offered them as "Red Danios - $5.99" No mention of genetic modification, glowing, and nary a blacklight in sight. If all the hype ends outside the pet-shop door, no wonder the craze is dropping off -- who'd wanna buy what looks like a six-buck red fish? But, hey, I bought two -- they look waaaay more bright red than those in the pictures... they do even seem to glow faintly, even under regular light. Must be a different strain. And I haven't tried the blacklight thing yet -- so maybe there is a chance for startling neon glow-in-the-darkness after all. ::shrug::
Oh, and just to add to this litany of Things Nobody Particularly Cares About, I named 'em Uranium-235 and Rubidium, after the radioactive elements. ::grin:: Yay for Yuri and Ruby.
heh.

Chestnuts roasted by Ash @ 01/16/2004 05:44 PM EST

Does anyone remember strawberry twinkies or know if they still make them?

Chestnuts roasted by Joey @ 01/16/2004 07:02 PM EST

Ummm to the one called "Prowlus" Whats an Oscar and what does "Ciclidae" mean?

Chestnuts roasted by Daveykins @ 01/17/2004 09:26 PM EST

Daveykins:

Oscars are a really big predatory fish in the fish family Cichlidae (a group of related fish). I have my doubts a big oscar would even waste the energy on chasing danios.

I had pretty much the same sentiment about the danios, except I keep Polypterus, which you can see at my website. In fact, I actually have fed them danios (but not glofish, that would be a waste of money).

And YAY! The italics worked! I can be taxonomically pure once more!

Chestnuts roasted by Sean @ 01/17/2004 10:00 PM EST

Oscars are great fun, they are like the puppy dogs of the fish world. More personality then you can imagine. Mine have a tendancy to 'beg' for food and want to be petted

Chestnuts roasted by robbdj @ 01/18/2004 12:01 AM EST

Yeah, I doubt anyone will see this, or if its been said b4, but oh well,...

As an actual genetics najor, I can tell you that genetically modified organisms really arent dangerous at all. Nor are they all that hard to make, if you have the gene you want to tag on sequenced. The coolest thing I've seen are mice that had GFP (green fluorescent protein) being expressed in their skin. They really glow quite green under UV light. No reason was given for it, that I saw. But GFP is cool, so that's reason enough.

Chestnuts roasted by TOP1214 @ 01/19/2004 12:24 AM EST

Matt,

Nice article, but one suggestion. On of the funniest of the many hilarious items on the site is the old zoo tours that were going on for awhile. The key was the haikus from the animals (I think it was the croc farm). Like the talking Hulk reviews, the personification was just great. Maybe fish Haikus are in the future?
Keep it up. I got Unicron for Xmas. Am slowly adding Microcons.
Signed, A grown man twinkie addict.

Chestnuts roasted by been @ 01/19/2004 02:28 PM EST

hey matt whatever happened to the hermit crabs

Chestnuts roasted by reso @ 01/21/2004 02:22 AM EST

I fanyone is interested in "glowing" fish, and are wondering why they don't seem to, I will answer this question for you.
These genetically modified fish have been altered in that a fluorescent protein from a jellyfish called GFP or "green fluorecent protein" has been put into them and is expressed ubiquitously throughout the organism.
What this means is that these fish don't "glow", they "fluorece". Simply put, by placing these fish under the right fluorescent wavelength, they will glow bright green. Other GFP variants have been created in different colors, including red, cyan and yellow.
if anyone wants to know the genetics behind it email me- gbienwillner@hotmail.com.

Chestnuts roasted by the geneticist @ 01/21/2004 08:10 PM EST

This GloFish hype reminds me of Seamonkeys when I was a kid. In the back of every comic book was an ad showing a Seamonkey family, the daughter with a ribbon in her hair, the son with a beach ball, the Dad smoking a pipe. I finally bought a kit at Target when I was in college a few years ago and they truely sucked ass. They looked like tadpoles and died within a week.

Chestnuts roasted by Fr8train @ 01/22/2004 12:13 AM EST

I weep for your chinchilla. :(

Chestnuts roasted by Zombie Clay @ 01/22/2004 11:51 PM EST

Neon Tetras are neat little fish, and while they don't actually 'glow' like a light, they have neat neon coloured stripes that are closer to glowing than what I saw in the pcitures here...

Chestnuts roasted by Justine @ 01/24/2004 08:43 AM EST

hi there,
I found your article to be enjoyable! Althought, I wish your Glofish were more like mine! Mine are very close to the unbelievable pink found on the glofish site. But, I do have more colorfull rocks and such that could add to it. Email me if you want some of my pics for your site or anything. I have had a blast posting pics of them!

Chestnuts roasted by Sarah @ 02/04/2004 12:02 PM EST

If you're thinking of getting a salt water tank, make sure it's at least a twenty gallon. Anything smaller should probably be reserved for quarantine. Best bet for starters would be clowns or damsels, both of which are fairly durable. They'll 'cycle' your tank, and they aren't that expensive. Some damsels will sell from three to ten bucks, and the clowns will typically run fifteen bucks for ocelaris clowns, and like, thirty or more for true perculas.

Chestnuts roasted by "Wild" Bill @ 02/07/2004 09:28 AM EST

Chestnuts roasted by "Wild" Bill @ 02/07/2004 09:29 AM EST

There is a website on Glofish. It is about a petition to prevent selling of glofish to the public. The site is www.Glofishpetition.us.tt . Please sign the petition and pass it on. People save the world for you and younger genaration

Chestnuts roasted by Mel_canada@hotmail.com @ 04/07/2004 09:52 PM EST

Chestnuts roasted by Mel_canada @ 04/07/2004 09:53 PM EST

http://www.mindfully.org/GE/2004/GloFish-Vector1apr04.htm .

Chestnuts roasted by Flubbergasted @ 04/12/2004 08:54 AM EST

Jeez man. You fell for the hype? I mean honestly.... its like those Siamese fighting fish. I thought they were gonna be doing WWE moves on each other and stuff. But instead they just rammed into things, much like the putties from powerangers

Chestnuts roasted by Switchcard @ 04/19/2004 12:53 AM EST

THERE'S ALSO CLEAR, GLASSFISH THAT THEY INJECT FLOURECENT COLORS INTO AND THEY GLOW UNDER BLACK LIGHT REALLY WELL.

Chestnuts roasted by (the original) MARKY MARK @ 05/22/2004 01:58 PM EST

OMG! RADIOACTIVE FISHIE POWERZ!!!!

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