Microtox was developed by Azur Environmental (formerly Microbics Corporation) in 1979 as a cost-effective alternative to toxicity tests available at the time.[3][4] Prior to Microtox, the majority of toxicity tests available for water specifically focused on fish and daphnids.[3][4] Since its inception, Microtox has become a standard method for testing the toxicity of water as well as other substrates such as soils and sediments.[3][5][6]