By Chris Cosci

Fish make wonderful pets. They don't shed. They don't tear up the furniture. And they don't leave little surprises for you on the living room carpet. But unlike other pets, fish have a very limited repertoire of activities. It's basically swim, eat, swim, eat, and swim some more. What fish need is a gimmick. They need something that will attract people looking for a hip pet to have around the house.

Enter Yorktown Technologies. They are getting ready to release the fish of the future - a breed so incredible, it will turn the pet world on its head. How many times have you said to yourself, "I wouldn't mind having fish as pets, but it would be so much better if they did something cool, like glow in the dark"? Well, you don't have to worry anymore, thanks to GloFish.

Developed in Singapore, the GloFish is your basic zebra fish injected with genes from jellyfish or a sea anemone. These genes give the fish a fluorescent property and turns them red or green. Why settle for a fish that just swims around in circles when you can have a fish that swims around in circles and glows in the dark?

Actually, they don't really glow in the dark. They just appear to glow when placed in a room lit with ultraviolet or black lights. So now you can have twice the fun. When you're not watching your glowing fish make its hundredth lap around the tank, you can make cool observations like, "hey, the black light is making my socks glow, too!"

Of course, you can't just up and sell a genetically altered fish and expect everybody to be happy about it. GloFish has been targeted by environmentalists, who have a few concerns about this new species. They call these creations Frankenfish, which is unfair because these fish were not assembled from various parts of other dead fish. They're more like Incredible Hulk Fish, only they don't get very angry.

Some of the concerns involve the possibility of a GloFish finding its way into the wild, where it could create a natural population of glowing fish. Of course, this problem could easily be fixed if we just replace the sun with a huge black light. Then we could just spot the wild GloFish and capture them before they spawn.

But the bigger issue that concerns people is the whole "genetic engineering is evil" concept. After all, if our government approves the sale of altered zebra fish that can glow, what happens if someone develops a fish that has legs, can breathe out of water, and can fetch the newspaper from the front lawn? Or similarly, what if scientists decide to make other pets glow, like dogs? Then, not only could dogs be trained to protect the owners, but they could also comfort children by doubling as a nightlight.

The truth is, these glowing fish were not originally created to be that awesome pet you show off at parties. They were specially developed to help scientists detect pollutants in waterways. According to the official Web site for GloFish, "it was only recently that scientists realized the public's interest in sharing the benefits of this research." Yes, I'm sure it will be the research that influences the general public to buy these fish.

The point is, these fish were originally bred for a reason. It's not like somebody woke up one morning and decided that glowing fish would be the next big pet fad. There needs to be some meaningful purpose. You can't just go to your local biology lab and say, "hey, I have an idea - what if we made snakes with ink in their tails so we can use them as pens?"

The GloFish is like any other scientific innovation that had practical applications before becoming just another consumer product, like the Internet. Before long, the original intent of detecting pollutants will be forgotten, and the GloFish will become yet another object for people's entertainment. It's good to know that scientists are working hard to satisfy our whimsical desires.