Who wants a Colourless Goldfish?

[Melody]

Science, that's who!

The goldfish, with transparent scales that reveal its organs, was developed by a joint research team of Mie University and Nagoya University in Japan.

The fact that it grows to weigh as much as 1 kilogram will make it useful for research into blood constituents and organ behavior. A report announcing the development of the fish was made at the annual meeting of the Molecular Biology Society of Japan in Yokohama on Wednesday.

The research team bred the transparent fish by repeatedly crossing selected pale goldfish over three years. ~ St. Louis Today

And an inadvertent Goldfish colour genetics lesson on the side. I'm surprised that's all it took to obtain transparency, but I know next to nothing about Goldfish genetics. You can read the rest of the story here (http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/sciencemedicine/story/A7CC7ED3C450AE8D8625768A007F59AA?OpenDocument).

[Laura]

There was a post at thegab from someone who had a goldie with a transparent head - it looked very odd....

[bae3]

I was just reading about how they developed a 'transparent' medaka for research purposes. For each of the four kinds of chromatophores, they had mutants that lacked them, so it was fairly straightforward to combine these mutations into one strain.

[GaryofMontreal]

I tend a pond at work and bring the goldfish in for the winter as the original basin was dug too shallow. We have one, a cross between a shubunkin and a common goldie, that is partially transparent. His/her body is transparent behind the head and on the cheeks, and cream and pale violet through the body.
It's a survivor - three summers outside, and numerous heron attacks. The white ones get picked off by the birds, but 'Violet' always seems to dodge the bullet.

[CACAdmin]

Maybe that colorless part confuses the herons.

[Namor]

The white ones get picked off by the birds, but 'Violet' always seems to dodge the bullet.

That's interesting, I wonder if the Herons see that coloration as a threat.
Like a poison arrow frog, or other similar type creature.

And you know I'm going to ask this...
any pictures of "Violet"?

[GaryofMontreal]

I've been going a little nuts with my camera recently, but photograph a goldfish? It never crossed my mind.
I keep them alive, feed them and give them a good level of care at the school because the kids like them, but man, they are like little underwater cows.
I should take the camera to work though. They would certainly be easy to photograph.

[Namor]

Now... Now... Goldies are fish too...




but man, they are like little underwater cows..


:yes:


Very much so, as evidenced by a petri-dish experiment that spiraled outta control.-


http://i971.photobucket.com/albums/ae196/SaskPicDude/moofish.jpg


Actually, that's not a cow.
I wouldn't want to steer anyone in the wrong direction. :wub: