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Sunday, April 13, 2008

«More About Sea-Monkeys»

Seamonkey packageBecause of an unusual interest shown by my readers, I'm talking about sea-monkeys again. I was going to wait until May 16th (that's National Sea-Monkey Day) to talk about them again. I've had mine for at least 10 years, so whatever I'm doing must be working.

Sea-monkeys are little brine shrimp on the order of ½ - ¾ inch long as adults. They can be found in most toy stores in sealed freeze-dried packages like the one pictured to the right. It's also possible to buy them with a tank included, but you can use any 12 ounce (354.5 ml) container. Or, of you use more than one package, you can have a bigger container. I think the plastic cashew container I have mine in is 48 ounces, so I used 4 packages.

When you start, it's best to use bottled or rain water, all the chemicals like chlorine in tap water is not good for them. Pour packet #1 into the water and stir until dissolved. Then let that sit for 24 hours. Packet #1 neutralizes harmful chemicals and metals in the water, and also has the salt the sea-monkeys need. They are brine shrimp, after all.

After the 24 hours, open and pour in packet #2, and stir gently. Packet #2 is the eggs and a little food. Some of the eggs will hatch once they hit water, thus they call it “instant life”. Although you may not see them right away, they are extremely small, smaller than the period at the end of this sentence. If I were you, I wouldn't expect to see them until a day or two pass.

About 5 days after you put in the eggs, it's time to start your feeding. You feed them once a week from the green food packet, with the small end of the yellow plastic spoon that came with them. Just one level small spoon-full a week is all they need. Any more and their water will get cloudy, and they could die. If their water gets cloudy, stop feeding until it clears up. On adults, you can tell if they're getting enough food by looking at the dark strip on their underside that runs the length of their body. This is their digestive track, and as long as it's dark they're just fine.

When their water level evaporates down about 2 inches, re-fill their tank with bottled or rain water. You never need to use another packet #1, because the salt remains in the tank and doesn't evaporate with the water. As the water level goes down, the salt content of the remaining water gets a little higher and causes the sea-monkys to molt (shed a layer of skin) so they can grow more. So it's important to allow the tank level to evaporate down before re-filling. Never change the water... You'd throw the babies out with the bath water so-to-speak. There's also no need to clean out molted skin or dead sea-monkeys.

Marf's seamonkey tankA sea-monkey colony is a little unstable until you get the clumpy blue-green algae to grow. This will take a while. I think this algae comes from their food packet. Once it takes hold, you can all but stop feeding them; the algae will provide for them. The picture to the left is of my tank (click the image for full sized), about 11 months ago. The red circles are around visible sea-monkeys in the picture. As you can see, I have a fair amount of algae.

There are 2 types of algae that can grow in a sea-monkey tank, one good, one bad. The good type is the clumpy blue-green algae I spoke of above. The bad type is a green slime. If you're getting the slime, the tank is getting too much sun light and could cause an algae bloom. The slime grows fast, and much of it dies in the night and is eaten by bacteria, and that consumes the oxygen in the water that the sea-monkeys need, so they will suffocate.

I recommend a moderate amount of sunlight. The temperature of mine is anywhere from 62-75. 62 is probably a little cold. For the most part whatever temperature the room is at is fine.

So that's the basics of caring for them. Long-term care on the order of years requires progressively less feeding as the algae grows. I only dump the small end of the feeding spoon every other month or so with mine now.

You'll notice the blue-green clumpy algae will create bubbles and float to the surface when it's in the sun. Those are oxygen bubbles, and as long as the algae sinks again afterwards, there's no harm in it floating. However, you don't want it to always be floating. Sea-monkeys do need to reach the surface from time-to-time, and they can't if there's too much algae floating. This is why I cleaned my tank just the other day. There weren't too many adults left...

Eventually, you'll get too much of the clumpy algae (like I did) and you'll want to fish out some of it with a wire. I used a bent paper clip. Don't remove all the algae, because they've become dependent on it. A nice layer covering the bottom is what you want. One thing I did was mix up a batch of packet #1 and replace the volume of algae I took out. I figured the algae I took some of the salts with it, so I wanted to replace that.

I already have tons of babies flourishing since I've cleaned the tank, so I think my colony is going to last a while longer. They survived a move into this house a few years ago. I'm gentle when I move their tank, and I make sure I don't knock it over. If I knocked over their tank or dropped it, that would be their end.

For any more information, go to the Sea Monkey Worship Page or the Official Sea-Monkey Site.

38 comments:

  1. Cool. I may consider some for Big B, I just think he would lose interest.

    You spoke so tenderly of them, I think that's cool.

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  2. I suppose I do care about them in some way; I have had them for a long time.

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  3. You should name them.... Just generally, give them a family name and refer to them by generation. Then you could include them in the meme.

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  4. Aww. My friend took an old bathtub and sealed the drain and made a "tank" out of It and dropped a bunch of packets of sea monkeys into It. God I don't remember how old we were but his mom was not pleased! Thanks for reminding me about these! I think a certain friend Is going to get a few packets of sea monkeys for Christmas this year hehe.(and no, they didn't have long lives obviously ~cry~)

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  5. @ Monique: I can't even tell between different generations.

    @ Sugarbelly: I don't think a bathtub is the best tank for them, it's a little big. lol
    They may not individually live long lives, but if you do it right, the colony will out-live any dog or cat...

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  6. That is just too cool.
    Raising (& sustaining) anything is always harder than it looks. Congratulations on your success.

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  7. @ music2books: Thanks. It was a little difficult in the beginning, most colonies don't last long enough to get the algae to grow.

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  8. your sea monkey tank is so wonderful, it looks like a mini forest. & i'm also amazed that you've had them for 10 years! that is really cool.

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  9. @ lilly piri: Thanks. I see you have a seamonkey tank on your blog.

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  10. how long do you estimate it will take before you should start seeing the blue-green algae?

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  11. @ Lizard: A few months. It will start to from little balls, if it's the "good" blue-green algae.

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  12. Hey Marf Come and have a look at the most amazing pet shop on earth!
    What do we offer?
    At Little Aussie we make 'real' seemingly magical life that you can actually hatch and raise your self!
    If you are already into Sea Monkeys, then please feel free to take a look at our "Sea Pets" range. I'm sure you'll be fascinated by what we are doing.
    www.itsybitsyseadragons.com

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  13. You know, I'm going to leave that comment above this one. Even though it could strictly be called comment spam, it's specific to my blog and it is on topic. Good enough for me.

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  14. Did you put anything in the tank for the algae to grow on or does it just grow on it's own?

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  15. @ Kevin H: The algae grows on its own. I put nothing in there for it to grow on.

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  16. Quick question here: Because you live in Alaska (per your about page), seeing how it can be cold at different time of the year, how is it that you keep your Sea Monkeys at around your suggested temperature?

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  17. @ Kevin H: Well, they are kept in the house. No matter how cold it gets outside, you still have to keep your house "livable" for yourself. And that's good enough for them, too.

    Although I think you are thinking about further North in Alaska. The weather we get here is more like Seattle Washington's weather; just a hell of a lot more rainy and windy, and only a little colder.

    For example, so far this fall we've have very little snow, a lot of rain, and temperatures above freezing. There have only been a few days so far that it was freezing outside.

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  18. what is that you have in the tank? is that a stick?

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  19. @ Sam: No, that's just how the algae grew. It might be a hair that the algae latched onto...

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  20. You said you used four packages of sea monkeys, did you use four package of purfier as well?

    Also do you reckon the sea monkey tank you can get has enough surface area for the sea monkeys?

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  21. @ Anonymous (#20): Yes, I quadrupled the "batch". And yes, the little tank you get with them has enough surface area. I'm sure they're researched that before they included it.

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  22. Wow, your Sea Monkeys are amazing! this is beautiful. I'm starting out a sea monkey colony, and hope they can be long lived like yours.

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  23. @ wemaydance: Yeah... Mine are dead now. They lasted about 12 years, but I wasn't using distilled water to refill their tank so I think the toxins finally built up enough to kill them.

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  24. or a sea ninja assassinated them.

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  25. @ Anonymous (#24): That must be it. Damn you sea ninjas!

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  26. @ Anonymous: i highly doubt ninjas could survive in the sea (at least for long periods). their land warriors...even if they could assassinate in water how do you suppose they'd ever fit in the cage? seems very unprovable. i hope your joking. are you?

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  27. @ the OTHER Anonymous (#26): no you idiot! of course i'm not serious... you clearly have never owned sea monkeys. even if i were serious—sea monkeys have 100's of arms...if a ninja were scaled down to the size of a sea monkey they wouldnt stand a chance...a ninja would be ripped to shreds. Don't be fooled by the way marketers portray sea monkeys in those cute illustrations... they're actually fierce ANIMALS who's only concern in life is where their next meal comes from.. in a sea monkeys eyes a small ninja would just simply be a appetizer, or at best a rape pet.

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  28. Very nice tank !

    It is good to see a sea monkey tank that is going strong 10 years latter.

    We have a website that is full of sea monkey products and information.

    Visit us online at www.myseamonkeys.com

    Check out MySeaMonkeys.com for more Sea Monkey facts, information and products

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  29. OMG!! That is amazing I am going to start my own colony soon, I just wanted to know your tips on how to get my tank to look like that O.O.

    When i was little i never got the algae to grow and my colony would last 8 months max / they would never mate and have babies do you know why? thx for the help :D

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  30. @ Anonymous (#29): Their food is basically dried up crushed algae. I'm not sure what caused it to "seed" and grow on its own.

    Usually the biggest issue with babies is the oxygen content in the water. If it gets too low the babies are the first to die. So your's might be laying and hatching eggs, they just die before they can grow.

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  31. I love this I just got some monkeys too...i had them when i was little but i barely remember them...I look forward to showing my husband :) Thank you for having this site for me to happen into *haha very animated and entertaining!

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  32. I just got sea monkeys! I hope they last long :)

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  33. Is it definitely the water purifier (#1) that contains the salt? Because I want to put my sea monkeys in a bigger tank so need to make more water to fill the bigger tank.

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  34. I can't figure out how to grow the algae :( I have had 2 tanks of sea monkeys for about 3 months now and nothing is growing! just some of the cloudy white stuff on the bottom i assume is their shells shedded? I am not sure what to do. they are thriving just fine, but I want a tank like yours!! PLEASE TELL ME YOUR SECRETS!! <3

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    Replies
    1. Tyra they need sun light . do they get some sun

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    2. It took years to grow like that for me. Yes, they need sunlight. Just make sure they don't get too hot.

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  35. I've bought a little Nano air pump for mine, do you think it'll be safe?

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  36. I've also had to get a heater because the water temp was only 15 degrees C and they wouldn't hatch!

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