Bioluminescent Dinoflagellates, Living

Overall I'm really impressed with the business practices of this company. They even have a note on their non-bioluminescent dinoflagellates page warning that it's not the bioluminescent ones (which saved me).Package arrived 2 days after ordered which was faster than the expected arrival time. The product was sitting outside in 97F heat for hours and was still only 82F so the packaging insulation must have done it's job. I will note the container was wet on the outside though the lid appeared to be tight and secure so not sure what happened there. I did separate some of the liquid into 2 other beakers filled with saltwater aquarium water immediately despite it saying not to just in case something happened to the first. One beaker I added nutrients and the other was left just the water. All 3 containers I put next to an aquarium with a timer on the light for 13 hours on, 11 off and all 3 bottles started to luminesce the next night within 24 hours. Unfortunately it's incredible hard to take a picture of the luminescence but the product image is fairly accurate to look and color to the eye, quite a bit dimmer in my colonies but that's due to the population still being small in each.I think a lot of people's issues are due to not following the thorough instructions. Once arrived you're supposed to immediately open and unseal the jar to allow airflow. Then, place it under a light with timer recommended with a 12 on 12 off cycle starting at 8am and ending at 8pm. Finally leave it undisturbed for 24 hours at least. The next night 1-2 hours after the lights go out check to see if its glowing when shaken, if not that's okay it can take up to a week. However, they're only bioluminescent at night and when shaken. If I was using this in a classroom demonstration I would slowly reverse the "night" to starting a 8am by pushing the timer back an hour a day as long as the colony still glows and keeping it in the dark during the day for it's night cycle when not being used to demonstrate.

The media could not be loaded.  Just opened the package today. It was delivered the day before, but was not home to pick up. I took it out of the box which was very nicely packed. I put it on the table that my fish tank is on in my fish tank there’s a plant growing light in it whenever I came home from work and picked up the algae to actually start messing with it. I seen a glow and I was able to get a video. It only lasted 30 minutes and the glow stopped but like I said I just open the package and they are not adjusted yet but still works👍

I've had the west coast ones that are more green and these little guys light up very bright blue over and over more so than the west coast ones. They are a great conversation piece and I keep them in my living room out of direct light and they are absolutely cool to have.

Second time I bought this and the second time it didn’t work won’t be trying it again

I was disappointed that they did not come with nutrition packs so I had to contact a lab. By the time it came my creatures had expired. My grandson was very disappointed.

They are just amazed by this

I live on the west coast so I was expecting there to be a decent wait period, but I was surprised to see them arrive only about 4 days after ordering. They were packaged carefully with a styrofoam box and multiple plastic packing layers, and came with a decently sized pipette for ease of transfer and a care and contact sheet. There did seem to be a little bit of water leakage, so my rating isn't going to be a perfect 5, but the plastic container seemed unharmed and mostly full, so I'm inclined to think it may have been a fluke. I may update if anything major changes, but the great news is they glowed first night! I'm excited at the prospect of possibly splitting my culture and putting it into more containers in the future :) next step is to purchase some dinoflagellate medium after I'm sure they're not going to die from shipping stress or anything, but signs are looking good!

I ordered these for my 8 year old son because he is very interested in becoming a deep sea marine biologist and bioluminescent creatures are his favorite. I followed the instructions and it did take about a week for them to start glowing. We were all in awe when they did. Totally awesome. Shipping was quick, no leaks or anything. 5 stars!