GloFish Facts

If there's one little fish that tends to get a bad reputation in the fish community it's none other than the GloFish so, today I'm here to debunk a few things.

First off, these glowing freshwater fish are generally just danios, barbs, and tetras that have been genetically modified with jellyfish DNA while still unhatched from their egg. When a GloFish breeds its offspring will retain their parents glowing abilities, but if you're trying to mix neon shades through breeding than it's anyone's guess as to what color the offspring will be (I'd assume they take the most dominant gene in terms of colorization rather than combining two different shades). While you can breed these fish they actually have a patent which makes them illegal for you to sell. Therefore the company selling Glofish can technically say that the fish you purchased was not injected directly themselves, but the original fish they created was (although I noticed they don't bluntly state that on signs at Petco).

GloFish at Petco

The GloFish was supposedly created back in 2003 to help detect pollution in water as the GloFish company claims that when these fish are exposed to polluted water containing certain metals, etc it will cause them to glow, while in safe water they wouldn't. For those in the aquarium hobby, you'll notice the fishes glowing effects under a fluorescent light so, no polluted water needed. Also, these fish don't really glow as they actually just absorb light and re-emit it.

A few other concerns I noticed online is the introduction of these fish into the wild and their effects on the environment while also noting that certain temperatures may result in killing these tropical fish while still possibly leaving a few remaining if they happen to find better temperatures in certain areas of their habitat. According to the GloFish company, their fish pose no further risk to the environment than their non-glo counterparts as the DNA gene they're injected with comes from a natural source (With that said I'm going to assume this jellyfish gene came from a freshwater jellyfish rather than saltwater since these are not at all saltwater fish), but it is said that you shouldn't consume these fish (as with most ornamental aquarium fish). Therefore it is said that these pose no threat to wildlife if consumed (I guess that's a different story if a person consumes one directly). According to the Florida Division of Aquaculture, these fish pose no threat to their environment in accordance with the FDA (which can really be a whole different topic on its own but we won't dive that deep in this post).

According to PetMD these fish have the same lifespan as their non-glo family members which is around 3.5 to 5 years, and they require the same habit and diet. Overall, if all this is, in fact, true then there's really no reason not to invest in our modified GloFish friends unless you just enjoy the fish in its original non-modified glory. In which case, there are more naturally neon-colored fish in the wild such as the ever popular neon or cardinal tetra.

Tetra ColorFusion LED Light - Review

As I was browsing through the fish isle of WalMart around the start of this year (which means this light is still working today after lots of use) I came across the Tetra ColorFusion LED light for around $20. This light clips onto the inner tank hood rim of the aquarium (cord has an additional clip to go around the side) and gradually rotates through several colors which allows you to pause the color rotation and keep the light on a shade of your choosing (and to turn it off you hold the button down).

2.5 Gallon Aquarium Setup with the Tetra ColorFusion LED Light

This LED light has 3 primary colors (blue, red, green) and 1 neutral color (white), and you also get a few various shades in between during the light rotation (purple, turquoise). This is a true led light so it brings out any metallic sheen, neon, etc on fish and/or decor (it's actually quite nice). This light in my opinion isn't that bright so I don't feel it would be enough to adequately grow plants (or cause algae growth) or use effectively on a large aquarium as this mainly makes for a nice night time aquarium mood light. This unit is waterproof which allows me to top off my little 2.5gal betta tank (pictured above). Overall I would give this 4/5 stars, and I'm going try this on my goldfish tank because mine don't really care for bright lighting.

Water Change via Pond Pump

If you have been using something like a gravel vacuum and bucket to do your water changes because you can't connect a water-flow control valve to your sink faucet (and at this point you've probably exhausted yourself), or perhaps your home doesn't have the best water pressure, or you don't want to waste as much water as with a typical water-flow control valve than what I am about to show you is a super simple solution and a total game changer!

Say goodbye to buckets and buy yourself a pond pump and enough hosing (that will fit onto your pond pump) to reach from your sink, bathtub, etc to your aquarium (and you may want something to hold your hose in place.. like a clamp or heavy object). 

How-To

Connect the hose and pond pump together. Set the pond pump into your aquarium while the other end of the hose goes in the sink drain. Plug in the pump and the water will remove the tanks water and go down the sinks drain.

To fill the tank back up you adjust your sinks water temperature as needed, close the sink drain (so it will continuously fill with water), and leave the water running (traditional sinks usually don't overflow as they have a top drain hole). Place the end of the hose into the aquarium and then plug in the pump by the sink and place the pump into the sink of continuously running water.

Once the tank is filled with clean water unplug the pond pump (assuming it doesn't have an off/on switch like mine), place your finger over the end of the tube in the tank and bring it to sink to drain out any excess water in the tube.

Additional Tips

Pond pumps don't really have a lot of suction when pumping water so you probably won't have to worry about fish, gravel, etc getting sucked up into these vents. If you are worried about small fry, etc getting into the pump than you can try placing the pump device into some panty-hose (or other fine fabric that water can easily travel through) and knotting off the fabric around the pump. 

Be sure your sink or tub is clean before filling it with water (vinegar is one of the best natural cleaning agents in my opinion) as sinks are one of the germiest places in the home (more so than the average toilet). You could also place a clean bowl inside your sink to place the pond pump in instead of having it set in the sink itself (which is probably the best way to go about this anyway), and this could also be beneficial if your sink doesn't have a top drain so that you don't have to worry about water overflowing and you could then leave the sink drain open instead.

I use the Tetra 140GPH Pond Pump, it comes with 3 different sized hose adapters (a 1/4, 3/8, and 1/2 inch ID) and has an adjustable flow rate (which gives off around 3 inches of head at its lowest setting and over a foot of head on its highest setting). Keep in mind the GPH when looking for a pond pump because that will control how fast you can get your water change/s done (with the 20ft vinyl hose I attach to this pump I can basically empty 1 gallon of water per minute). 

How to Remove Nitrite

Nitrite NO2 Ion

After having cleaned out my entire 10gal aquarium (as you may have seen from my previous posts) and replacing all the gravel substrate I didn't check my water quality since I had ran out of test strips and had added my male guppies to the tank within 24hrs I believe (obviously the tank needed to cycle). Well, that resulted in losing one of my male guppies after a few days (the reason why my guppies weren't being active in the first place) and luckily I was able to move my 2 remaining male guppies back into there old aquarium with the females and they made a speedy full recovery in 1-3days.

So now that I have test strips I realized, yes, I did have a nitrite issue (no ammonia though in case you were wondering). The only time I ever have a nitrite issue is when I replace the substrate. Generally I'd clean the entire tank out again (rinsing all the decor and such as well) and it would rid me of my nitrite issue (which sounds weird but it has worked for me in the past). So I decided I didn't want to go through the headache of cleaning my tank out again and wanted to find a product that could rid my tank of nitrite (as my nitrite level ranged from 0.5 - 3.0).

I was extremely skeptical I'd even find a product that could actually eliminate nitrite, especially having really hard well-water, which is generally pretty stubborn to alter. So, I went into PetSmart having no luck finding what I had initially been looking for and then I finally found ONE product in the whole store that day (which happened to be a bit pricey as well), it being my only option without having to go on a major product hunt I purchased a small bottle of... Tetra SafeStart.

I got home, followed the directions... removed the carbon filter, shook the bottle of Tetra SafeStart and poured in 1/3 of the bottle into my 10gal tank. Less then 10hrs later I tested the water and...NO nitrite whatsoever! It's seriously a miracle product which I can now recommend to you if you're battling nitrite. This product also claims to remove ammonia although, I had no ammonia so I'm not sure if it will combat that or not.

*Update* It has been months now since using Tetra SafeStart and I have not had a nitrite issue since I first began using this product. I know how some products can seem to work for a very short time (if at all) but that was not an issue when I used this. Or it is possible this product worked long enough for my tank to catch up in the cycling process before this product could have possibly ever worn off. So, I still really recommend trying this if you're having similar issues as I did because it worked perfectly for me.