Ah it's really been awhile since I've updated this thing.I blame the holidays and a gradual rotting of
my brains. Not to mention the blubber growing on my butt that's weighing me down :)
Anyways,I wanted to write about the difference between Zebrafish and Glo Fish.This issue may
have been confusing to some so to clarify let me show you some pics of them
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| Zebrafish |
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| Glo Fish |
Okay,now that you have an idea of what they look like,let me try and explain the difference
between the two. There isn't much of a difference actually. Zebrafish are tropical freshwater fish that
were originally sourced from India and Bangladesh and surrounding countries. You may also hear
them called Zebra Danios and Danio.They are actually part of the minnow family, Cyprinidae and
are scientifically labelled as Danio Rerio,derived from the word
Dhani meaning rice fields in the
Bengali language if I'm not mistaken.They were found in rice paddies,rives,drains and
ponds,basically places with slow moving or no currents. They are known to be very graceful with
long and wavy fins,which may be why they are a popular type of aquarium fish. Zebrafish have
horizontal stripes along their body,tails and fins. Supposedly male zebrafish have gold and blue
stripes whilst females have silver and blue strips with a more prominent white underbelly.
Now for Glo Fish.Basically Glo Fish are zebrafish which have been genetically engineered.They
were supposedly created to monitor pollution in water by glowing in the presence of certain
environmental toxins.The first Glo Fish was created in the National University of Singapore by
injecting the Zebrafish embryos with a green fluorescent protein (GFP) derived from jellyfish
genes.The results were green zebrafish that glowed under white light and ultraviolet light.Later,red
Glo Fish were created using genes from coral,and these were followed by yellow,purple and
blue.These "Glo Fish" were a great hit with aquarists and were at first sold at rather exorbitant prices
but later became so common that they were sold at a mere few dollars a fish.As you can see in the
picture they have given the fishes some really flashy names but in reality they're just zebrafish.They
do however, pass on the fluorescent genes to their offspring.
I kept a pair of these red Glo Fish as a teen and they're pretty hardy.Both of them lived for nearly
two years,one of them with the absence of his left gill cover.In fact he was the most active among the
two and outlived his partner.These lil fellas are a joy to watch and easy to care for.Basically like
guppies just perhaps a lil more active :) You won't regret keeping them but I do hope no one uses
them to feed Arowanas or some other bigger fish,after all they're really too beautiful to be live food.
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