Glow-In-The-Dark Pet Fish

Taikong Corporation in Taiwan unveiled the playful side of bioengineering earlier this year when it introduced the TK-1 aquarium fish genetically engineered to glow green in the dark. Sold as "Night Pearls" the TK-1 is a type of killifish--a small egg-laying toothed carp--which is very popular with aquarium fish fans. Taikong has rendered them sterile so that they cannot breed should pet owners decide to pull a Finding Nemo on them. Of course, sterile fish are also good business since pet owners will have to buy replacements from the company. Taikong plans to offer glow-in-the-dark red and green-and-red versions soon. Naturally, the ever objective, fair and balanced CNN couldn't resist the anti-biotech epithet "Frankenfish" in referring to these pet fish. Taikong hopes to offer the fish in the US later this year, so plan to cross activist picket lines to purchase little Suzy her new pet.

[Thanks to uberyoyo for the link.]

Comments

[Plutarck]

Just wait untill someone does it with a dog, and then watch all of us fall all over ourselves to explain that all dogs already ARE genetically engineered, for christ sakes.

I await the feeling of deja vu.

[click here for the Lonewacko B]

I don't know how they sterilize the fish, but nothing is always 100% effective. Wouldn't it be wacky if one of the "sterilized" fishes manages to make it into, say, the Mighty Mississip, breeds with a local fish, and the whole river ends up glowing in the dark? Boy, that'd sure be something to see, wouldn't it? I bet the tourist industry in MO and LA would really perk up if that happened! Of course, I usually tend to look on the bright side of things.

[Mo]

Yeah, because a glow in the dark fish would last real long before getting eaten. There's a reason most animals don't glow, it's not a gene that would easily survive for very long.

[Plutarck]

It would if we did it to ALL of the animals! WOOHOO! Glow in the dark forests!

[Douglas Fletcher]

Al Franken does look an awful lot like a carp.

[Evan McElravy]

I always sort of just assumed that all aquarium fish were sterile, for the obvious business reason. Of course, I actually know nothing about aquarium fish, so I could be wrong. Anybody know?

[hey]

see, fox is better!

at least rupert likes science and isn't ashamed of his wealth

and wendy deng was never involved in war crimes, unlike a certain actress' tour of north vietnam

[Mindinda Guter]

Can't wait for genetically altered prostitutes to come out. What will the media refer to that as? Frankenfucking?

[Todd Fletcher]

Frankenwhore

[D.A. Ridgely]

I'm waiting for a heat radiating canine -- a Frankenfurter (aka Hot Dog)

[Phil]

Ahem . . . Frankenhooker

[Luca Brasi]

I saw that movie and I was going to post about it. Damn.

[Keith]

Evan,

My first fish ever was a black molly that must've been pregnant when I got it. The result was an interesting object lesson in cannibalism for a first-grader.

Keith

[sharky]

We know you were just angling for something smelly to say about dear ol' Al, but that was downright bass. Besides, Al is really just a sardine and we've got bigger fish to fry.

[Eddie's son]

Wow! This sounds like the Japanese might have come up to one solution to the energy crisis! (Can one read by the light of aquarium fish?)

[spaceman]

I don't know about that, Edison, but if terrorists can see the Mississip from a spy satellite, it couldn't be good.

[Anonymous]

Actually, Chihuahuas are also good for selling crunchy snacks during football games on TV.

[Evilcor]

Ridgely:
There already IS a thermal dog: the lowly Chihuahua.
Story goes that the Aztecs used them in bed like living hot-water bottles.
All they're good for if you ask me.

[Douglas Fletcher]

I hate chihuahuas, especially those two little rat-dogs that live next door to me. I'd try to poison them but I'm not that cruel.

[Anonymous]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/030726/241/4svdq.html

---
Glowing mice : A fluorescent mouse family, provided by the Level Biotech, a transgenic company, is displayed inside a box during the Bio Taiwan 2003 at the World Trade Center in Taipei. The mice were implanted with the green fluorescent gene into the mice embryo combining genetic engineering and transplantion technology. (AFP/Sam Yeh)

[Anonymous]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=573&ncid=757&e=1&u=/nm/20030717/od_nm/life_chihuahuas_dc

---
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The case of 174 feral Chihuahuas on death row in a Los Angeles animal shelter has pitted animal rescue groups against each other in a debate over whether the purse-sized dogs are too vicious to adopt.

The plight of the tiny dogs has prompted a war of words between rival Chihuahua rescue groups, a candlelight vigil, and an outpouring of offers of new homes and money.

Some experts have also warned that the adorable lap dogs, made wild by years of inbreeding and roaming in packs in the home of their elderly owner, were closer to miniature wolves than the cute breed made famous as the Taco Bell mascot.

[...]

No one questions that these are troubled dogs. The pack's dominant members have attacked and killed more than a dozen kennel mates after arriving at the shelter, Michelson said.

[R.Nader]

A FIELD DAY FOR OWLS!

Not to mention the great party time cats, snakes, and assorted predatory birds will soon have, courtesy of Level Biotech, a transgenic company.

Look! Up in the sky! Is it a plane? No, it's a fluorescent falcon who just ate a fluorescent mouse.

[Don]

"Yeah, because a glow in the dark fish would last real long before getting eaten. There's a reason most animals don't glow, it's not a gene that would easily survive for very long."

In the Mississippi would that even matter?

[Apis]

Okay intellectual property weenies -- where's the outrage over the sterilization of these fish so they can't reproduce?

How is that different from limiting the ability of music and video afficionados from making copies of their favorite CD/DVD and distributing it?

[Madog]

It's pretty tough to breed most fish in captivity anyway, so making them sterile is just to placate the luddites. If you let aquarium fish go outside of their natural environment, they'll die pretty quick, glowing or not.

[J Canuck]

Sssshh! no one tell PETA.

[Idahoan]

I haven't seen the Mississippi in years. Is it really that bad now?

[LeVine Paul]

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