The Great Sea-Monkey Project

Two Weeks and One Day Old

I've switched to a schedule of weekly feeding with the monkeys now - the water is always crystal clear, even a few hours after feeding (once the particles have settled) so I'm just going to continue aerating daily and watch their digestive tracts to see when I should be feeding!

I fed them yesterday and I see a few with 'tails' of poo, so I know they are eating. :)

Two round patches of algae have developed on the tank wall and I occasionally see a monkey 'hover' on top of it, so I think they are eating the algae too.

It doesn't look much like algae though - it's in a round patch, quite thin (I can see right through it, there's not that much), and looks like mold (but if it isn't algae and it's getting eaten - then what is it??)

I have about 25 to 30 sea-monkeys now. There are about five big ones, and the others are either slightly smaller or much smaller. I think the really really small ones hatched when I put the plasma in; they're about the right size. The really big ones have lost the two little 'flippers' next to their heads - the medium-sized and little ones still have them. I like watching the big ones swim - they are really quite graceful for something so small!

Plasma Day!

In the end, I did feed them half a small scoop of food on the fifth day, but nothing interesting happened so I didn't write about it. Most of the food floated on the surface until I aerated. The monkeys didn't seem too interested.

They are now officially nine days and 20 hours old, but I added their first serving of plasma anyway - three big level scoops. Most of the monkeys immediately developed 'tails' of poo. Anyway, they seem a bit perkier now, so I think the plasma is doing them good.

As I was aerating today, I noticed that I had some dead sea-monkeys on the bottom, but I suppose that is to be expected since the number of monkeys is now only about 30 or so. Poor monkeys. The dead ones are quite small though, less than 2 mm long, so I don't think I'm going to remove their corpses - it's too difficult to suck up something as small as that without taking out a lot of water as well.

Still Growing

The Sea-Monkeys are six days old now, and Very Very Big! Well, perhaps not that big - but I can see them from 10 feet away without trying, and that's a very big difference from squinting into the tank through a magnifying glass from two inches away only a few days ago.

Their first feeding was supposed to be yesterday, but when I shine a flashlight behind them I can see that their digestive tracts are full, so I don't know whether to feed them or not - any suggestions? I've also seen some monkeys with trails of poop behind them. ;)

I thought I saw legs on the bigger ones yesterday, and today I'm sure - almost all, except the two or three runts, have legs now! They are looking more and more like adults. It's still way too early to sex them yet, and most of them will probably die off, but I hope I get a good mix of males and females.

Getting Bigger

Not much is happening; the babies are bigger every day. The very biggest ones must be nearing 2mm but there's no way to tell for sure, since they move so quickly. The number of babies seems to fluctuate (less in the morning, more in the late afternoon) but it's probably just because they move slower in the morning, having been kept in darkness all night. After all they can't just disappear and reappear like that!

They are three days old now. First feeding in two days (they'll be five days old - I hope that's the correct feeding scedule!). I can see a dark stripe in all of them now, except the smallest ones, when I shine a light behind them. I think this is their full digestive tracts, so I'm not too worried about them starving to death. I'm much more worried about them being jostled around and splashed out during aeration!

Pictures!!

They are about 48 hours old now, and significantly bigger. All the runts have caught up with the big monkeys. I aerated again today, and again there do not seem to be any missing monkeys, so that's what I'll continue to do daily.

I managed to take a bunch of semi-clear photos of them today, since they are bigger. They don't look like adults yet and are comet-shaped with what looks like two flippers on either side of their heads.

I also managed a 10-second video with the flashlight behind the tank. They are much easier to see this time! Download the video here.

More Babies

There were more of them this morning, and they are a bit bigger, but nothing else interesting happened. The biggest monkeys are almost twice as long as the little ones, and are actually beginning to swim quite well, instead of jerking around and around in circles. They are all over the tank now. The little runts are still hiding in the crater but the big ones are everywhere.

I estimate that I have about 100 babies in there right now - I hope at least a few of those make it to adulthood!

I aerated today with a drinking straw - I melted the end closed with a lighter and poked little holes in it with a needle. I was afraid I'd hurt them, since they are so small, but I can't see any difference in their numbers so they are probably OK.

First feeding in three days!

It's ALIVE!!

As soon as the 24 hours were up, I aerated and then tipped the eggs in.

How exciting! They're not just eggs - they're instant, live eggs!!!

I was a bit shocked that the egg powder had green food colouring in it.

I stirred with the leash until most of the powder was gone - there are still little bits of undissolved green colouring floating around. As a result my tank is now a lovely green colour.

Here's a closeup of the inside of the tank - don't you agree that the green mist gives the tank a nice atmostphere? ;)

I looked really closely and to my surprise, actually did see some baby monkeys wriggling around. It took a while to spot the first one, but once I knew what they looked like it was easy to see the rest!! They are the little, white, comma-shaped dots that wriggle and jerk around in the water. The other particles just drift, but the monkeys wriggle!

I tried to take a video of the newly-hatched babies, but they are so small. You can download a short excerpt of that video here if you'd like - the baby is in the center of the screen, and near the end of the movie a bigger baby swims into view from the top right corner. Remember that they are a bit hard to see though.

I spent half an hour staring at my tank just now, and noticed that most of them seem to be congregating in the crater at the bottom of the tank. Maybe that's where the food is? Hmmm.

They are supposed to be much bigger and easier to see tomorrow, so I'll try to get a better picture of them!

And So It Begins...

I used to have Sea-Monkeys as a kid, at the tender age of eight or so. I remember being horribly impatient and overfeeding and under-aerating and ending up with only one sea monkey who lived a grand total of two months.

Now that I'm twice that age, and much wiser (haha!), I'm going to try again.

So today I went over to Toys R Us and bought a glorified brine-shrimp-rearing kit, as pictured below:

Now the kit I used to have was a plain ol' boring Ocean Zoo - as basic as you can get - but I must say these new kits are looking pretty darned spiffy.

I rinsed out the tank with tap water, and filled it up exactly to the 300cc mark with Evian. I excitedly cut open the Water Purifier package, and poured it...all over my desk. I do not recommend doing this. The opening of this tank is VERY small. And I have VERY clumsy hands. I managed to sweep most of it onto the instruction sheet and carefully tipped it where it was supposed to go. I stirred with the Aqua-Leash until it was all gone.

Now the question is, how am I possibly going to wait 24 hours?? (Some things, like my impatience, never change.)

EDIT: I keep finding stray purifier crystals on my desk. I decided to taste one...ugh, salty. I think it's safe to conclude that yes, brine shrimp do indeed live in brine. :P