Transparent Fish

Following up on my post three months ago about "Brazilian Invisible Fish" (also see the hoaxipedia article), it looks like scientists have engineered a real transparent fish. It's not quite an invisible fish, because the internal organs are visible, but it's close. The Telegraph reports:

[Dr. White] created the transparent fish by mating two existing breeds. Zebrafish have three pigments in their skin-reflective, black, and yellow. Dr White mated a breed that lacks reflective pigment, called "roy orbison", with one that lacks black pigment, called "nacre". The offspring had only yellow pigment in their skin, essentially looking clear. White named the new breed "casper", after the ghost.

If displayed in a store window, these transparent fish could probably draw as large a crowd as Reichenbach's invisible fish.

Animals

Posted on Mon Feb 11, 2008



Comments

Meh. Transparent fish are nothing new. Look up 'glass fish', 'glass catfish', or 'glass angelfish'. All three species are transparent. Sadly, some folks will inject flourescent colord dye into the fish, in an effort to make them look more vivid in the aquarium.
Posted by Robin Bobcat  on  Tue Feb 12, 2008  at  02:20 AM
[Doing my best impression of the "Leave Britney alone" guy]:

"STOP PICKING ON REICHENBACH! HE BROUGHT THE PAINTING 'SEPTEMBER MORN' TO YOUR ATTENTION! HE PUT A LION IN A HOTEL ROOM! HE PUBLICIZED DISNEY'S FIRST CARTOON, STEAMBOAT WILLY! HE'S BEEN DEAD FOR DECADES. WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM HARRY??"
Posted by Cranky Media Guy  on  Tue Feb 12, 2008  at  02:39 AM
I use to have those fish years back......The Beta ended up killing them though...But they were see through, except for the organs...
Posted by Illicit Mars  on  Tue Feb 12, 2008  at  11:42 AM
Feh, there's nothing new about this.
As the original comments about the Brazilian Invisible Fish and the Hoaxipedia article about the same pointed out, there are numerous natural fishes that are transparent or translucent to varying degrees. There are also many examples of relatively unpigmented strains or individuals of fishes that in their common forms are colored, which seems to be what "Dr. White" has created here.
For example, I have in an aquarium some examples of "Gold Jack Dempseys." The Jack Dempsey is a cichlid (variously described as Cichlasoma octofasciatum, Nandopsis octofasciatum, and Archocentrus octofasciatum) which in its common form is mostly gray, blue, and red. The Gold Dempsey, due to a mutation, does not produce the dark pigments, so its entire body is pinkish with gold highlights. There are variant forms of other cichlid species that similarly lack dark pigments, such as "Pink Convicts," "Gold Severums," "Pink Zebras," etc., and also albino varieties of many, many aquarium fishes. Another mutation of the Jack Dempsey, very popular lately, is the "Electric Blue Dempsey," which has iridescent blue blotches interspersed with black spots over most of its body and fins. The Electric Blue Dempsey and most of the "Pink" and "Gold" varieties mentioned here are aquarium strains; they are seldom or never found in nature. Albinos, melanistic (black), and xanthistic (yellowish) individuals are thought to occur naturally with some frequency, though, but they don't last long because their abnormal colors attract the attention of predators and confer other competitive disadvantages for survival and reproduction.
Posted by Big Gary, Deputy Curator  on  Tue Feb 12, 2008  at  03:30 PM
Commenting is not available in this channel entry.