George Streisinger was adamant about obtaining pure strains of zebrafish. The first ones that he purchased for his research, his "A" strain, was Fh3 - Fh5 from our hatchery, then Pacific Northwest Fisheries, not from Florida breeders as commonly believed. We had originally obtained the stock in about 1965, from Loui Kueng (Louie King) of Kowloon Hong Kong, and had maintained 3 to 5 generations at our hatchery when George obtained them. These first zebrafish were a rather small, regular fish. George’s second strain was the 'B’ strain which George obtained from an associate of Rodney Jonklaus, primarily a saltwater shipper to Europe in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). These ‘B’ strain fish were collected in the wilds in India and shipped with some other fishes to Sunrise Fish Farm in Singapore (the site of the current runway extension) and then shipped to LAX and brokered by Steve Starr of Inglewood CA. These were a very large, well-colored fish that were nearly 50% larger than the standard zebrafish in the trade. They had better color in the larger finnage and were marked with more yellow, even in the females. Their fins were less pointed and more rounded. The body had an overall blue cast. These fish pleased George immensely.

We also shipped in a so-called 'Albino' strain from Anzan Young at Union Aquarium in Hong Kong. These turned out to be only a 'golden' variety of small, anemic fishes. George was disappointed in them, but got them anyway.