This topic seems kind of controversial... I mean there are Pros:
-Could be useful
-Increases variety of fish
-Can be extremely colorful
-Can be fairly unique
-"Natural" colors (As in not dyed)

And Cons:
-Higher survival rate and overpopulation (Ex: If wild salmon breed with genetically modified disease-resistant salmon, salmon population will increase greatly)
-Health risk?
-Dealing with unknown forces
-Can be unpredictable

So what do you guys think?

I think we spend too much time "playing God" already and should leave it alone. There are bigger fish problems we should solve before we go making more artificially. People can't even keep the naturally "made" fish responsibly. As for wild fish species again we still have bigger fish problems that should be solved first. In the US alone there are WAY too many invasive species that are causing the natural fauna to go extinct. We should work on the problems we currently have before making more but thats just my opinion. It's just like butt holes - every bodies got one. LOL

All goldfishes are genetically modified fishes.

Not actually true, genectically modified fish are made in laboratory , cells are mixed with other natural fish. The fancy goldfish we have are bred, specific traits are bred that are desired.

Yeah he's right.All golds are genetic mutations.Or do you mean like science going in and messing with there dna to create squid man?lol

I was thinking in terms of like Glo-Fish danios, or Genetically altered salmon.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3759755

Here's an article about the glofish controversy.

I happen to like them myself and have all 3 colors now.



That being said, glofish pose no threat to our food supply but if you mess with salmon for instance there could be problems. Like if you genetically alter them to get bigger and live longer then they will be too much competition for the natural wild salmon and the wild ones will end up going extinct. Not sure I like that idea at all.

Its not necessarily that...Lakes are HUGE and will happily feed all salmon, wild or genetically modified. What is worried upon, is that the Wild salmon will interbreed with the gen-modded salmon. That could be a problem for several reasons:

One-It will dilute the gene pool.
Two-Salmon will last longer, and could possibly throw off the ecosystem
Three-Possible increase in population or genetic defects.

i agree about the samon thing. but again, there are fish farms out there for like trout and other fish already, which may not genetically alter them, but it does increase their numbers drastically. if someone decided not to stop farming, or there wasn't a market for that fish species anymore, and they just released them into the wild, they'd compete for food, and even if they co-existed with the regular fish, they'd deplete the food sources, and the entire ecosystem would collapse.

even fish we have now, if some irrisponsable person decided to do a "good deed" and release them, they'd pose a threat.

Salmon don't live in lakes you know. And if they interbreed then the babies won't be true wild salmon--that's what I meant by going extinct. There would still be salmon of course but not the natural type.

I have no problem with it for the aquarium trade, there's not much difference from selective breeding (in terms of the numbers of fish culled, etc.)

BUT for farmed fish, I have some issues. As mentioned, farmed fish (salmon, trout, etc) can escape, all it takes is a good storm or flood in some cases.
I know someone doing a PhD right now on a fish farm where they are selectivly breeding their salmon and then releasing the fry to repopulate a river system. His theory is that even doing that may harm the wild population, because those fry haven't been exposed to the natural selection that wild fry would be, so that 'weaker' fish are being released to breed with wild ones.

Over all I believe everything should just be done slowly and by professionals. While visiting C.R.E.S. laboratories they discussed genetically altering animals. In some cases it actually helps animals. I just don't think we should be genetically altering animals that are perfectly fine and in not in any danger. However, birds like the California Condor needed help so that is while the scientists stepped in. I have absolutely no problem with selective breeding though since it can generally be reversed over a few generations if it isn't strong enough to survive.

Chrissy_Bee- National Geographic Article
My personal opinion is that it isn't as big of a deal as its made out to be.

Oops, I forgot about Kokanee salmon--I think they do live in lakes! Anyhow, MOST wild salmon live in streams and the ocean.

Two-Salmon will last longer, and could possibly throw off the ecosystem, for example when all the salmon come from the ocean to spawn up stream there are, hungry eagles with their babies who await for their arrival, as well as bears and other animals who all need the salmon to support the ecosystem to support all the other animals who rely on them making the trip every few years.

glofish?

don't like them, don't like the company that's selling them

they claimed the fish go through a process to sterilize them, and yet fishkeepers all over are succesfully breeding them (which is technically illegal, because they are patented)

wouldn't be caught dead with them in my tanks

regular zebra danios are prettier anyway

As a biologist and environmentalist, I have torn opinions (as usual haha).

I think they are just plain cool, and I really like the original reason glo-fish were created.

All of you complaining about how genetically altered fish are unatural and dangerous to the environment... I'm not disagreeing, but where do you think we get out fruits and vegetables? Almost all produce has been genetically altered to be more disease resistant, bigger, reproduce faster etc. The original banana is not what you buy in the grocery store. Our bananas are WAY larger, more curved (to fit our hands), and have a much thinner skin. It's the only way we can keep up with the exponential growth of our population.

I dont mind it as long as it isn't a modification that will make life difficult (like only only having a tail fin or something) or is going to end up in nature.

Genetic modification is not playing god or messing with the unknown. FYI most foods are or have ingredients that are genetically modified. The usual case is something like a crop that has a pest or pathogen resistance gene inserted into its genome. This makes the resulting population of plants resistant to that pest or pathogen, nothing more.