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PLANARIA•PLANET

Buying your Planarian

Welcome! We welcome your enthusiasm about the fascinating little animals that are planarians. And what a good place to start, educating yourself about the creatures that you will certainly buy. For your Convenience, we have divided this page into three steps to consider when buying planarians.

Types of Planarian

Most commercially available planarian species are divided into brown planarians and black planarians. Brown Planarians are usually cheaper and more easily available than black ones, but most suppliers should carry both. However, ordering black planarians during certain times of year (apparently spring) may result in your order being substituted for brown planarians. A third, less common species is the white planarian - who is also rarer, more expensive, and more difficult to keep, as there are less resources on the issue than there should be. You may, however, be able to get White planarians from an aquarist who is dealing with them as an aquarium pest.
Some suppliers may also dye their planarians blue by culturing them in blue-stained water. Note that these are not a different species of planarian, and are usually just brown ones dyed blue. I would reccomend buying your planarian from home suppliers, as some educational interfaces may be specifically designed for schools. Most planarian "kits" come in packages in either 30 or 100. This is because they are designed for classroom use, where, sadly, most are thrown away after use. 30 is plenty for a home operation. you may even find yourself spreading your planarian colony between two holding units!

Buying The colony & shipping

Colony prices range around 8-16 dollars. They will arrive in a box, with a styrofoam block, holding a cylinder with freshwater planarians. the transportation will keep them cool, and it is important that as soon as they arrive, you keep them cool - not cold - as well. Depending on your location relative to the supplier, the package could take 2 weeks to 2 days to arrive.