The fish Hemigrammus Erythrozonus aka glowlight tetra is known for being sold by pet stores and parents give to children to be their first pet (and unfortunately, next to the goldfish and Betta, being one of the fishes that are not taken care of properly).
The small tropical fish is from the Essequibo River in Guyana (South America) but the original color of these fish are silver to transparent.
But there are fish designated as “GloFish”, a patented and trademarked brand of genetically engineered fluorescent fish owned by Spectrum Brands, Inc. which purchased GloFish from Yorktown Technologies, the original developer, back in 2017.
It all started with the Zebrafish (Zebra Danio), when in 1999, Dr. Zhiyuan Gong and his colleagues at National University were working with a gene that encodes the green fluorescent protein (GFP), extracted from jellyfish and inserted the gene into a zebrafish embryo. The original goal was to detect pollution by selectively fluorescing in the presence of environmental toxins.
The National University of Singapore filed a patent application on this work and then other universities started to test this out on other fish.
The scientists from the National University of Singapore and businessmen Alan Blake and Richard Crokett of Yorktown Technologies met and a deal was signed with Yorktown obtaining the worldwide rights to market the fluorescent zebrafish under the name “GloFish”, with the exception of Taiwan, as NUS had a separate deal made between the largest aquarium producer in Taiwan, Taikong, to market the medaka (rice fish) with a fluorescent green color.
GloFish were introduced to the US Market in late 2003 after two years of researched and the US Food and Drug Administration’s assessment were as follows:
Because tropical aquarium fish are not used for food purposes, they pose no threat to the food supply. There is no evidence that these genetically engineered zebra danio fish pose any more threat to the environment than their unmodified counterparts which have long been widely sold in the United States. In the absence of a clear risk to the public health, the FDA finds no reason to regulate these particular fish.
Despite the criticism of organization against the genetic engineering as this would open a dam to nonfood genetically engineered organisms, this has led to new colors of zebrafish being sold. Followed by Tiger Barbs, Tetras and GloFish Rainbow Sharks. In February 2020, GloFish Bettas were unveiled.
In California, GloFish were illegal since 2002 due to a regulation that restricts genetically modified fish but in 2015, after the FDA and Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services findings, regulations were lifted in 2015.
However, the import, sale and possession of these fish is not permitted in the European union, Australia or Canada.
It’s important to note that breeding GloFish, there are laws about this, so check your state rules. You can not sell, barter or give your GloFish away and most importantly, you can not let GloFish out in the wild (people did these with their Plecos and now these Plecos have spawned to the point that they have became invasive species destroying fish habitat).
For those wondering if Neon Tetras (Paracheirodon Innesi) were genetically engineered. No, the iridescent blue along the side is inherent to these fish. And they are breeded and farmed raised from Southeast Asia or come from Colombia, Peru and Brazil and come from the wild.
Which now leads me to my review of the Hemigrammus Erythrozonus (Glowlight Tetra) which is a GloFish which I purchased from a major pet store.
I have been wanting a fish that is bright and vibrant and really, the yellow/black molly that I have is not cutting it. I don’t want a gold gourami as they tend to have an attitude and may pick on my two peaceful gourami, so I heard a GloFish Tetra was perfect.
I got this tetra to be the third fish of similar size next to my kissing gourami (Helostoma Temminkii) and my three-spotted gourami (Trichopodus Trichopterus) aka Opaline Gourami.
Bringing in “Hemi” (which I call my Electric Green Tetra), it was not the nicest Tetra. In fact, the first day, I was worried because it appeared to be a bully and I was thinking, “oh great, what did I introduce to the aquarium?”. But that was the first day, from then on forward, Hemi has now become the nicest fish, alongside my gourami’s. Swimming around, knowing when you are there to feed it and just a good natured fish.
UPDATE: Hemi is back to being a brat, likes to chase after Pinky, the pink GloFish tetra and he used to go after the male platy, but now the platy has grown big, he tends to give it right back to Hemi and chase after him.
Likes to be around the plants, likes to be in the cave and has been a peaceful community fish in general.
Overall, GloFish Tetras are great and are best with being with around a group of five total. I may add one more to the aquarium but for now, I’m really enjoying Hemi.
