C 3.0
Living cultures
Algae, protozoa, bacteria, fungi, live plants and live invertebrates. Everything on this page ships Monday to Wednesday only, because the organism sets the calendar.
A living order is a date before it is a quantity. A tube of Paramecium has a window measured in days, live invertebrates have a temperature range, and both of them lose it sitting in a depot over a weekend.
So everything here ships Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday and no later. That is a constraint the organism sets rather than one we prefer, and it is published here rather than discovered at checkout, because the thing it changes is your lab week. A culture wanted for a Tuesday class is an order placed the week before, not the Friday before.
Tell us the week you need it and we will work backwards to the ship date and say plainly whether it is achievable. If it is not, we would rather say so than send something that arrives dead and disappoints a room of thirty.
Every item on this page leaves on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday so that no living order is in transit over a weekend. The table on the shipping page works backwards from your lab week to the day you need to order.
Name these on the order
- Organism
- By binomial. Paramecium caudatum and Paramecium bursaria behave differently under a microscope and in a growth study.
- Delivery week
- The week the class needs it, not the week you are ordering. We work backwards from it.
- Supplied as
- Tube, slant, culture or pack. A tube is a class-sized quantity, not a single organism.
- Quantity
- What the lesson consumes. A larger culture is not a saving if half of it is gone by week three.
- Holding on arrival
- Whether you can hold it and for how long, which is stated on the packing slip for every living item.
All of them appear on your written quotation before a purchase order is raised. See ordering.
C 3.1 Prices
Published prices
Catalogue figures for this group, reviewed September 2026. The whole catalogue is priced on one page if you would rather compare groups — see prices.
| Culture | Supplied as | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Paramecium caudatum | Tube, class size | $11.40 |
| Amoeba proteus | Tube, class size | $16.80 |
| Euglena gracilis | Tube, class size | $12.60 |
| Spirogyra sp. | Tube, class size | $13.20 |
| Mixed protozoa surveyFour labelled tubes | Set | $26.00 |
| Escherichia coli, K-12Non-pathogenic teaching strain | Slant | $14.50 |
| Bacillus subtilis | Slant | $14.50 |
| PillbugsArmadillidium vulgare | Pack of 12 to 100 | $9.60–$60.00 |
| DaphniaLive, for heart-rate work | Culture, class size | $15.40 |
| ElodeaLive, for photosynthesis work | Bunch of 12 stems | $14.80 |
| Wisconsin Fast PlantsSeed, for growth studies | Packet, 200 seed | $22.00 |
The pillbug range of $9.60 to $60.00 across pack sizes is a current published figure.
Catalogue prices are USD per unit at the pack size stated, exclude shipping, handling, hazardous-materials surcharges and any applicable tax, and are catalogue ranges for planning a requisition rather than an offer or a quotation. Reviewed September 2026. A figure for your order is confirmed on a written quotation. See the disclaimer.
Questions Living cultures
Questions about this group
Specific to living cultures. The general questions — ordering, purchase orders, substitutions, returns — are on the FAQ page.
What happens if a culture arrives dead?
Telephone us the day it lands. Living material is replaced on the next available shipping day at no charge where it is reported on the day of arrival, which is the honest window for something perishable — after a few days on a windowsill nobody can tell whether it arrived dead or died in the prep room. This is set out in the payment and refund policy.
How long will a culture hold before the lesson?
It depends on the organism, and the packing slip states it for the one you received. As a planning figure, protozoa and algae hold several days at room temperature out of direct sun, bacterial slants hold longer refrigerated, and live invertebrates want to be out of the box and into a container the day they arrive. Order to land one or two days before the class rather than a week before.
Are the bacterial cultures safe for a school lab?
The strains supplied are non-pathogenic teaching strains, and they are the strains school and college microbiology is taught with. They still require ordinary aseptic technique and proper disposal — plates and slants are autoclaved or disinfected before they go in the bin, never rinsed down a sink. Handling and disposal are on the holding fluid and safety page.
Can you hold a living order until a specific week?
Yes, and this is the normal way to order living material. Place the order when the budget allows, name the delivery week, and we schedule the ship date against it. The order is confirmed with a ship date on the quotation, so nothing leaves early and nothing has to be chased.
Catalogue The other groups
The rest of the catalogue
Frogs, fetal pigs, cats, rats, mink, perch, sharks and the rest of the dissection sequence, at the injection grade the lesson actually needs.
Earthworms, crayfish, grasshoppers, squid, starfish, clams and the survey sets that carry a whole phylum sequence in one order.
Sterilised barn owl pellets in first and second quality, which are different products for different lessons and are priced separately.
Scalpels, scissors, probes, forceps, pins and trays, and the assembled student and instructor sets built from them.
Telephone with the lesson, not the catalogue number
Tell us what the lesson has to show, how many students are working in pairs and which week it is scheduled for. We will name the species, grade, size, fluid and pack that fit and put it on a written quotation.
Niles Biological, Inc. · 9298 Elder Creek Rd, Sacramento, CA 95829