Eli's first pet

Could the son of two nerdy science professors possibly have a normal first pet?

No, of course not.

Eli's first pet is a shoal of transgenic zebrafish known as GloFish.

Eli with his GloFish!

 What are GloFish?, you ask?

GloFish are a zebrafish (Danio rerio, as my 8-year-old nephew quickly identified!) with an inserted transgene from either a jellyfish or a sea anemone.  These genes are for fluorescent proteins that are expressed in the muscles of the zebrafish and make them "glow".  They now sell red, orange, green, blue and purple (you can now buy them at your local pet store!).  Eli has a few green and a bunch of blue ones.

Green GloFish
(Photo by Ryan Wynne)

Blue GloFish
(Photo by Ryan Wynne)

 
Sure, Eli is probably a bit young for a pet of his own (Wait, I am not supposed to buy my 5-month-old his own pet?).  Truthfully, these are some research subjects that are just spending the summer with us from Ryan's lab.  Ryan has been working on a few shoaling studies with his undergraduate students, based on some experiments I did during my thesis work** (a long time ago!). As Ryan is home with Eli all summer, we thought it would be fun for Eli to start doing a bit of research and earn his keep (Wait, I am not supposed to have my 5-month-old doing research?).  


**Totally nerdy side note -- While getting some links for this post, I discovered that my old thesis paper is actually mentioned on the GloFish Science page.  I am that much of a nerd that I am a little excited about it!**