Glo bettas

[fishhead0103666]

I was visiting my local petco, checked outthe betta display, “20% off all bettas except glofish bettas”. What? Asked an employee that I’m friendly with, it’s true. Glowing bettas are coming. My petco will get them in next week or the week after that. Here’s a picture I found online.



I personally am looking forward to them. I’m not a fan of glofish due to aesthetic reasons but these have potential in my opinion.

 

[Lysol]

Idk. "Creating nature is the ultimate luxury" - takashi amano. This is not natural in my opinion.

 

[Magnus_Bane]

Idk. "Creating nature is the ultimate luxury" - takashi amano. This is not natural in my opinion.

I personally agree. Glowfish in my experience tend to have a much shorter life expectancy then the original counterpart. Also if put into the same tank as the original the original tends to pick on and harass the glow varient to the point of death. Some animals in the wild are bioluminescent for a reason but I personally don't think it's right to force an animal to be so against it's will just because we want a colorful, glow in the dark varient of the original. Now please don't take this as a personal attack or anything, I'm just voicing my own opinion on the subject.

 

[fishhead0103666]

While I would love to have a debate about what is "natural" and ethics (all conversations about glofish eventually lead to ethics) this site is not the place for it as it is not debate.org so let's try to not go down the slippery slide of that please.

I must admit, I'm surprised they chose bettas to be the next fish to glow. I wonder what it was about bettas that made them decde that they are the best canidate to glo-ify. Perhaps because they're easy to take care of and the world has been tricked into thinking they can live with next to no care?

 

[Ogertron3000]

Aren't glo fish normal fish genetically modified with the luminescent gene from a jellyfish or something added in? I believe there was a scientific reason to do it and it has slowly filtered into the hobby.
It's not my thing but I still prefer it to some of the hybrids and long fin variants I see around. I don't think glo fish suffer some of the same issues that some blood parrots and flowerhorns have as they are essentially a normal fish that happen to glow.
Each to their own ,but they certainly aren't natural but I guess they don't claim to be either.

 

[Red Beard]

Not really my cup of tea at all, but that's just my personal preference. From the (very small amount of) research I've just done I'm not really compelled to think it's necessarily a terrible thing, certainly unnecessary, but I'm bot even a fan of albino fish lol.

 

[duanes]

Aren't glo fish normal fish genetically modified with the luminescent gene from a jellyfish or something added in? I believe there was a scientific reason to do it and it has slowly filtered into the hobby.
It's not my thing but I still prefer it to some of the hybrids and long fin variants I see around. I don't think glo fish suffer some of the same issues that some blood parrots and flowerhorns have as they are essentially a normal fish that happen to glow.
Each to their own ,but they certainly aren't natural but I guess they don't claim to be either.

I attended a talk by one of the people who began the genetic engineering of zebra danios.
He talked about how many millions had to be culled to get one where the phosphorescent gene from planted ocean jelly fish and others, bred true.
But once accomplished, he mentioned it would take shorter steps to produce the glow in other more evolutionary complicated species.
At the time of the talk they were already working on tetras, since then, tetras have already become common.
Designer fish are also not my thing, but I also object less to it, than the amateur hybridizing that has so permeated cichlids world these days, making it impossible to find "true" cichlids in LFSs.

 

[AaronKWolfe]

These are a monster fish alright, just not in the way we like.....

 

[jjohnwm]

It was inevitable. Somebody saw a buck to be made...and did whatever they had to do in order to make it.

But...Bettas? Meh... Personally, I am holding out for Bubble-eye PomPom Lionhead Oranda Glo-Goldfish. I can hardly wait for a fish that can't see, can't swim, can't feed itself and also glows in the dark. It'll be a perfect addition to my aquarium, and will make it an even better "window into nature" than it already is.

But...will they do "fine" in tropical temperatures? I already have a short-bodied Arapaima, a Redtail X TSN cat, an albino Clown Knife and a 3-eyed Goliath Tiger Fish in my 75-gallon tank so I need to keep it at 78F. My window of opportunity to introduce new fish is brief; I need to wait for all of them to be at one end of the tank, trying to turn around, so that I can quickly throw new fish in at the other end. Please advise ASAP; my older brother promised to drive me to the fish store today so I need to know right away!

I love fish.

 

[Ogertron3000]

I attended a talk by one of the people who began the genetic engineering of zebra danios.
He talked about how many millions had to be culled to get one where the phosphorescent gene from planted ocean jelly fish and others, bred true.
But once accomplished, he mentioned it would take shorter steps to produce the glow in other more evolutionary complicated species.
At the time of the talk they were already working on tetras, since then, tetras have already become common.
Designer fish are also not my thing, but I also object less to it, than the amateur hybridizing that has so permeated cichlids world these days, making it impossible to find "true" cichlids in LFSs.

Culling millions of fish to get it right does put a different spin on it, didn't think it would be that brutal.
Can you remember the actual reason these fish were produced? I remember it was for some kind of research but not the exact purpose.

It was inevitable. Somebody saw a buck to be made...and did whatever they had to do in order to make it.

But...Bettas? Meh... Personally, I am holding out for Bubble-eye PomPom Lionhead Oranda Glo-Goldfish. I can hardly wait for a fish that can't see, can't swim, can't feed itself and also glows in the dark. It'll be a perfect addition to my aquarium, and will make it an even better "window into nature" than it already is.

But...will they do "fine" in tropical temperatures? I already have a short-bodied Arapaima, a Redtail X TSN cat, an albino Clown Knife and a 3-eyed Goliath Tiger Fish in my 75-gallon tank so I need to keep it at 78F. My window of opportunity to introduce new fish is brief; I need to wait for all of them to be at one end of the tank, trying to turn around, so that I can quickly throw new fish in at the other end. Please advise ASAP; my older brother promised to drive me to the fish store today so I need to know right away!

I love fish.

I'd go for a long finned oscar and a ZZ grade king karma Thai silk warrior flowerhorns male. As long as you do a ten percent water change once a month and only feed them five times a day you should be fine. Maybe get some plecos and clown loaches to clean the bottom of the tank too.