Glofish/Zebra Danios

[FrogNewt]

Hi,

I'm new to the forum, so forgive me if I lapse in my etiquette somehow or ask redundant questions!  Also, if I somehow bring this site to its untimely demise, the blame should fall squarely on Tiamat, since he (graciously) invited me (us) to the forum.  =)

I recently managed to successfully breed my glofish danios (three females: red, yellow, and orange) with two normal zebra males.  The fry aren't yet free swimming, so while I have a day or two to spare, does anyone have any advice on rearing the fry?  I have a DIY sponge filter set up right now with a very mild flow so that they won't be sucked in, as well as some live anacharis.  

Has anyone bred these before?  Does anyone know what the ratio of glofish to danios is when "crossbred" (I know they're exactly the same species, but apparently glofish DO produce glofish).  

Any advice would be appreciated!

Thanks,
Jake

[eklikewhoa]

Re: Glofish/Zebra Danios

Not sure about your question but..................Welcome to the Box!



Tiamat.....

[alexarae]

Re: Glofish/Zebra Danios

I don't really understand the question either...
If you're asking if any of us have bred glofish before...personally, my answer is no. I did get my danios to breed before, however none of the fry survived.
I had a rapheal catfish in there...I should have named him Hungry Hungry Hippo.

If I have any fry...I usually head to my LFS and pick up some liquid or small fry pellets.

[Zulaab]

Re: Glofish/Zebra Danios

does anyone have any advice on rearing the fry?

Jake,

Their young as far as I recall are VERY small.  Make sure that they have a nice planted tank to start in as there are millions of micro organism in the tank they can live off for the first few days.  I would start with very well crushed flakes, ie until its a powder and let it settle to the bottom when they are free swimming.
They should be nipping at everything and what ever they can get a hold of they are going to eat down.

I am in no way an expert but with regular water changes (ie prolly ever 3 days) you should see them grow up to the point where they will take something a little bigger.

I am sure that one of the better experts on Danio's will jump on soon and see this and will correct me if needed

Jesper

PS.   You should take a few minutes, and write a quick introduction in the "Welcome Section" and tell us more about what you have etc..  you will be amazed how quick the people you really need to talk to will respond here with any and potentially all the help you will ever need :)   We are a great bunch here :)

PPS :) :) :) Welcome to the Houston Fish Box :) :) :)

[Tiapan]

Re: Glofish/Zebra Danios

HEy the name is Tiapan   , its ok as far as the rest of the foroum is concerned they just use the Tia and add what they want on it. but welcome to the box . I fully blame my horrible handwriting for your error  

[PhishPhreek]

Re: Glofish/Zebra Danios

for really small fry you should have some java moss for cover and a culture of microworms for food.
In a pinch you can use liquid fry food from the lfs or hard boiled egg yoke in powder form (smash it real good)
I like to use an infusoria culture
Be careful not to overfeed them as it will polute the water and kill all your fry.
Best of luck with your babies  

[RussGB]

Re: Glofish/Zebra Danios

I raised Zebra Danios in a 10g with a sponge filter and liquid fry feed. I had no plants in at all, just a very simple DIY sponge filter. Raising glofish should be no different than normal zebras. Zebras are super easy, and were the first fish I bred and raised as a kid. I would highly recommend frequent water changes especially if your rearing tank is small to get good healthy sized babies.

It will be interesting to see what you get out of that mix since the glofish coloration comes from spliced in genes (one is a coral and one is a jelly fish, can't remember what the third is). Can't remember what my highschool bilogy said about ratios, but it is even toughr to predict withc egg scatterers...what huge combination of possibilites!

One important thing to note is that they are copyrighted. What that means is that you are allowed to breed them, and to give small numbers away, but you can't sell or trade them. Of course I won't tell if you won't!

Keep us informed of progress as I was thinking about letting my guys breed. I have added long fin leopards and glofish to my shoal of basic zebras.....

[alexarae]

Re: Glofish/Zebra Danios

"Glofish have been genetically engineered with the fluorescent jellyfish DNA. Yes it is inheritable, and yes they will breed, but technically (or, rather, legally) you are not allowed to sell the offspring as the fish is patented (copyright?). lol..I guess some fish are patented and others are just "discovered"? "

Go figure. I think if you breed them, you should be able to sell the little suckers. I'd like to see the ratio of glowers to..non-glowers.

Some people argue that the gene that is used is anemone.  

[RussGB]

Re: Glofish/Zebra Danios

I had heard that each color is from a different animal....:

Here's what wiki says:
"In 1999, Dr. Zhiyuan Gong and his colleagues at the National University of Singapore extracted the green fluorescent protein (GFP) gene from a jellyfish that naturally produced bright green bioluminescence. They inserted the gene into the zebrafish genome, causing the fish to glow brightly under both natural white light and ultraviolet light. Their goal was to develop a fish that could detect pollution by selectively fluorescing in the presence of environmental toxins. The development of the always fluorescing fish was the first step in this process. Shortly thereafter, his team developed a line of red fluorescent zebra fish by adding a gene from a sea coral, and yellow fluorescent zebra fish, by adding a variant of the jellyfish gene. Later, a team of Taiwanese researchers at the National University of Taiwan, headed by Professor Huai-Jen Tsai (蔡懷禎), succeeded in creating a medaka (rice fish) with a fluorescent green color."

[RussGB]

Re: Glofish/Zebra Danios

More:

"In addition to the red fluorescent zebrafish, trademarked as "Starfire Red", Yorktown Technologies released a green fluorescent zebrafish and an orange fluorescent zebrafish in mid-2006. The new lines of fish are trademarked as "Electric Green" and "Sunburst Orange", and incorporate genes from sea coral.[3] Despite the speculation of aquarium enthusiasts, it has been found GloFish are indeed fertile and will reproduce in a captive environment"

Also according to wiki, they are banned outright in California