Can you make all fish glow?

[Toby_H]

The first glofish were made by splicing a Danio with a gene from a jellyfish... later more vibrant colored fish were made using colors from corals...

I have been under the impression that the "glow' is stored in fat cells and therefore only a "clear skinned" fish/animal could glow...

If the glowing monkey pictures are real then either I'm wrong or the information I recall is outdated...


Note/Added: A quick read shows the monkeys don't simply glow... instead they are UV refractive, meaning they glow under a black light. This is no less interesting or abnormal, but is slightly different than "glowing"... Still thanks for the interesting link BPage!

 

[rnocera]

You're right, nc_nutcase. Thin skinned animals are the ones that show it. In some animals, only the albino forms show the gene. Specifically axolotls come to mind- larval tiger salamanders. You can get GFP (Green Fluorescent Protein) axolotls, but they look normal. You have to have an animal that is GFP and albino for it to be green. The GFP mice show GFP under black lights, and as pinkies, but adults look normal otherwise.

Also, none of these fish glow. They have bright colors, and they're bright under black lights, but none of them generate any type of light or anything. Glo-Fish is the trademarked name of the danios that have GFP and the two genes from corals (orange & pink/red). You can breed GFP danios at home, but Glo-Fish is trademarked, so this has lead to "glow fish" "glow danios" etc. . . in different pet stores who bought home-bred danios instead of from the true supplier and are trying to sell them for the same price as the trademarked "name brand" fish.

I don't know about right now, but I know that less than a year ago there were federal laws in place preventing anyone from releasing GFP animals to the pet trade EXCEPT for danios. I know this because a friend and I were looking to make some GFP axolotls, and we looked into everything about it before doing it. It was legal to do them for school, scientific study, etc, but not in the pet trade. At that time, danios and mice were the only animals available, and you couldn't get unaltered mice (meaning all the GFP mice were fixed before they were sold). Anyone know if the laws have changed, or are people just doing it anyway?

 

[Jellyman]

I hatched up a scheme to feed bioluminescent algae to my jellyfish to make them glow from within. They would light up when the jellyfish bumped into them in the water, which was very cool, but the room had to be completely dark to see anything.

 

[Retuks]

The truth is, we can make anything glow. but there are moral obstacles in government and society. naturally if you got the money you can make it happen.

we are very alert about this kinda thing especially here where i live because it threatens almost everything we have. what they do is take a special gun and slam genes into DNA of other animals and plants and force the properties of that gene into it.

basically its a breakthrough but on a holy level people believe its the ultimate defiance and violation of nature. religious groups believe we have the power to "play god" now. and in their perception of what that is, we can.

Oranges with arctic flounder genes that give them anti-frost / other crops with bamboo genes in them to act as a growth hormone. even growth hormones themselves. glowing fish isn't even close to half the things scientists and crop growers are doing now. and they don't mention this on the package. alot of the produce you eat in america has been genetically altered and you don't even know it.

hint - mcdonalds salads are just one example. they are given a gene from another plant to keep it from EVER turning brown. ever wonder why they dry up green?

EDIT: all this cool stuff is actually a problem atm. its not good that everything is being genetically altered including the food we eat (especially without our sayso). mostly because this technology is less than 10 years old. we have NO clue what negative effects they can have yet.

 

[A jar]

I think its possible. But I bet you won't see it done on any exotic/expensive fish anytime soon. Just imagine the resources and number of fish they'd go through before getting it even close to right.

I will def agree with some of the other posters that watching your glowing fish with the lights off would look sweet tho.

For example chickens have a gene for teeth.

^
this is just creepy.

 

[Retuks]

actually. they wouldn't go through that many resources nor fish at all and probably get it right the first time because scientifically every animals cell plot is the same. i was told that by a scientist at the department of agriculture. why it hasn't happened is the same question as why everybody doesn't buy ice cream every day. they just don't.

 

[spiff]

I had a couple goldfish that glowed after I fed them a lot of lightning bugs. You could still see the bugs flashing through the extended stomach walls.

 

[coeus]

i wonder if i could make just one part of my body glow permanently, if it would get a laugh or a scream from my gf

 

[Retuks]

i wonder if i could make just one part of my body glow permanently, if it would get a laugh or a scream from my gf

or maybe your glands could produce luminescent body fluid. lol that would also make your eyes glow . zomg... too cool.

 

[jr monster fish]

I think its possible. But I bet you won't see it done on any exotic/expensive fish anytime soon. Just imagine the resources and number of fish they'd go through before getting it even close to right.
QUOTE]
It would be like doodling on the mona lisa. I dont even like glowing zebra danios.