An aquarium filled with bioluminescent plankton is the perfect gift
Throw your sea monkeys in the garbage. There's a new tiny pet in town — and this one glows.
This fish bowl is filled with thousands of bioluminescent plankton called dinoflaggelates that glow blue when gently shaken. It looks like magic, but it's actually science.
Bioluminescence is what causes lightning bugs and jellyfish to glow. The same dinoflagellates that light up this aquarium treated the shores of Tasmania to an underwater light show earlier this year. With the bioluminescent aquarium you can have your own light show in the comfort of your own home.
Like with sea monkeys, you need to do everything exactly right to experience the full effect of your microscopic pets. According to the product listing, during the day, the plankton need to be placed in indirect natural light to photosynthesize. They'll glow in the dark when agitated (it's a defense mechanism, but you're not going to hurt your little friends.)
The plankton have a lifespan of a few months, but if you feed them nutrients and keep them in consistent temperatures they'll apparently reproduce indefinitely. You can buy more dinofood at the same link you used to purchase your aquarium.
No offense to dogs, but this might be the coolest pet ever.
Topics Animals
According to twitter, Emily Heller is a fake geek girl and a SJW. If you ask her friends, she laughs too loud and cries at cute animal videos. Prior to Mashable, Emily wrote for CollegeHumor and Reductress and most recently worked at a very bro-y tech startup. She lives in Brooklyn with three dudes, a cat who acts like a dog and a dog who acts like a houseplant.
