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| ARTICLE INFORMATION: Author: Matt Hennig Title: New Aquarium Trend? - Fish that glow in the dark. Summary: Various breeders are genetically modifying fish for luminescence and fluorescence. Contact for editing purposes: email: mathias@skybiz.com Date first published: September 2001 Publication: Reprinted from Aquarticles: |
ARTICLE USE: Internet publication (club or non-profit web site): 1. Credit author, original publication, and Aquarticles. 2. Link to http://www.aquarticles.com and original website if applicable. 3. Advise Aquarticles Printed publication: Mail one printed copy to each of: Matt Hennig, ABC Editor, 8700 - 222A Street, Langley. B.C. V1M 3S8 Canada. Aquarticles #205 - 5525 West Boulevard Vancouver, British Columbia V6M 3W6 Canada |
New Aquarium Trend? - Fish that glow in the dark by Matt Hennig September 2001 Courtesy of Matt's free ABC Newsletter available at http://www.aquariumbulletin.com. Aquarticles No, these fish are not painted. They are genetically modified laboratory creations that possess new genes which are expressed to give the fish a luminescent green appearance. The animals below are reported to be medaka fish developed by a Taiwanese aquatics firm Taikong Group. The firm plans to market the fish as pets in the next six months (i.e. by about February/March 2002). The photo is by Simon Kwong/Reuters. The reference for this is given at the bottom of this page. By the way, this photo was probably taken under UV light conditions. Under daylight conditions the fluorescent green would not be quite as striking.
Note that these medaka fish are not the first fluorescent transgenic fish that may be destined for the aquarium hobby. At the recent AQUARAMA 2001 aquatic trade exhibition (held in Singapore from May 31 to June 3, 2001) glow-in-the dark zebra danios (Brachydanio rerio) were displayed. These fish were genetically modified to contain various genes: either from jellyfish that makes them luminous green (with the dark horizontal stripes) or from a sea anemone that makes the fish a luminous red or pink (with the dark stripes). Other colour variants included yellow. The zebra danios were developed at the National University of Singapore. Although these fish were developed as part of a research programme that - among other things - aims to employ them as indicators of water quality (the fish are supposed to change their colour depending on chemicals or pollutants present in the water), their commercial potential as ornamental fish stands to reason. Source: September 8, 2001: http://home.netscape.com/ex/shak/international/galleries/week16/0.html Source: John Dawes. Things to come? In: Aquarist and Pondkeeper, September 2001, p63. |
