A planarian is one of many non-parasitic flatworms of the Turbellaria class. It is also the common name for a member of the genus Planaria within the family Planariidae. Sometimes it also refers to the genus Dugesia.

– Wikipedia

Most people know planarians for their remarkable regenerative properties, which makes them a favorite for simple high school biology labs. They are also common in more advanced research due to their simple genetic structure and easy availability. Researchers are interested in their apparent ability to live forever through a combination of regeneration and lack of an aging process. Other modern studies seek to understand their regeneration methods or correlate planarian genes to the human genome.

However, planarians are nice quite animals that are fun to watch. Biology students might find them cute pets. A friend of mine was given some planarians to take home, and offered to give me some, so I took the opportunity to learn more about these interesting creatures and see if I could maintain them on long-term basis.

Finding Planarians

In the Wild

Planarians are supposedly quite common in many regions, and like gently flowing water.

On the Internet

One of the reasons planarians are a favorite for research is the ease of acquiring some. If you don’t feel like hunting in the local watershed yourself, you can order some online from various science supply companies, such as Carolina Biological Supply.

Care

Water Sources

Temperature

 Feeding

twice a week to expand population

once a week to maintain the population

Changing the Water

after feeding

two days after feeding

Sources of Confusion

Planarians are not parasites!

Be prepared that many people will think that planarians are parasitic. Make sure to dispel this myth. It may help to remind people of their high school biology class, which very likely involved some experiment with planarians (most likely cutting them up).

Planaria versus Planarian

I really have no clue when you should use on word over the other? Is one plural and one singular? Do they refer to different subsets of related organisms? Wikipedia has a page for Planaria, which describes a specific genus, and Planarian, which describes many different species of related flatworms. It would seem that then planarian is the better term when generically referring to any of these kind of flatworms, but the even Planarian Wikipedia article uses the words interchangeably. Thus, I will consider it a mostly unimportant point and use whichever word I feel like.

Telling Species Apart

Big List of Links

Literally everything (useful) I can find on Planarians.

https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090409151321AAgaUdO

http://stevesauter.com/planarians/

http://drmichaellevin.org/Planaria/links/links.htm

http://www.scienceprofonline.com/science-for-kids/planaria-main-page-flatworm-care-experiments-activities.html