Fireflies aren’t the only living creatures able to make their own light.

While on vacation, our family visited the huge Ripley’s aquarium in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. As I watched perhaps a hundred different species of fish swim past us in one huge tank, I quoted aloud Genesis 1:20- “Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life.” It was an awesome display of God’s handiwork!
In another part of the building stood an archway and a low tunnel which no one was entering. Curious, I got on my knees and crawled in for ten or twelve feet. There in the dark was a tank of flashlight fish, glowing like fireflies as they swam. To the left was a sign explaining the amazing facts I will share here. I was so fascinated that I rounded up others in our family and encouraged them to investigate what mystery lay in that dark passageway.
The scientific name for this fish is Photoblepharon steinitzi; it is also called the lanterneye fish. The particular species we saw was only about an inch or two long though some others reach a foot long. During dark nights in the Indian Ocean or Red Sea most species apparently rise from relatively deep water to feed on plankton in the shallows. The flashing glow reveals their presence.
With a name like flashlight fish it is ironic that it can’t actually make light. Their glow is produced by bioluminescent bacteria that live in special pouches below their eyes. The bacteria continually make cold light by a chemical reaction between luciferin and luciferase, much as lightning bugs do. To turn the light on and off, the fish open and close special eye-lid like pouch covers.
The fish and the bacteria live in a symbiotic relationship, i.e., they help each other survive. The bacteria provide light in the dark depths for the flashlight fish. In return, the fish supply the bacteria with food and shelter.
The flashlight fish knows just when to ‘turn on’ and ‘turn off’ this light. They use light to attract prey, signal mates, and for defense. To escape enemies, they quickly change direction while flashing their lights on and off.
Note that the light given off by this bacteria is nearly 100% efficient. Edison’s first light bulb, developed after much painstaking research, was 1% efficient. The question before us then is this: how can evolution account for bacteria able to make cold light from chemical reactions? How can it explain a fish that is equipped with a pouch to house the bacteria under the eyes, covers to ‘turn it off and on,’ and with the knowledge of when and how to do this? I would say a brilliant Creator explains all this far better, wouldn’t you?