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[APD] RE: glowfish banned



Mario wrote, "I think that glow fish should be banned not only in California but, in the whole word. We all know that either plant of fish end in the river streams disruption the local ecosystem with
invasive species. Just as an example we have here in Florida South American Plecos allover the
place."


Whoa, hold on a minute! By that reasoning, *all* tropical fish & plants should be banned anywhere the environment would allow them to survive.

Using zebrafish as an example. Glowing or non-glowing, if they are let loose in areas where they can thrive but are not native, they may well outcompete native fish or harm native plants - in other words, damage the ecological balance. This has just nothing to do with whether they are GM or not - it is strictly a matter of introducing non-native species, which is almost always a bad idea IMO.

But let's say that glowing zebrafish are released into a healthy, native zebrafish population, and lets also assume that they haven't been so modified by years of captive breeding that they can survive. Will they replace the native, non-glowing fish? I don't know what the heritability of the glowing gene is - if a glower and a non glower mate, will they have all glower childen, all non-glower, or some mixture of the two? Are glower genes dominant and recessive, like eye color? Where is Gregor Mendel when you need him?

I just think it's really important not to confuse the issues related to genetic modification with those related to invasive non-native species.

Has anybody ever seen these things in person?

-Rachel

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