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Sea Monkeys

Posted on April 7, 2015 in Projects & Articles

HobbyScience – Sea Monkey Stuff

Sea Monkey  

smonkey1

  Facts about Sea Monkeys
  Info sent by Tegan…age 10 … 04/05/06

What they look like:

The females have a lump on their abdomen which is a egg sack.
They are brown but most are different browns.
The babies are much smaller than the adults.
Most of the females are larger than the males.
When they shed their skin or die then they are really dark brown or black.

Eating Habits:

The baby sea monkeys quickly eat their food at the bottom of the tank.
The males eat more than the females.
Female sea monkeys swim around as they eat.
Sea monkeys eat algae and you have to give them growth food once or twice a week.

About the Babies:

The babies sometimes swim to the top of the tank and then go back down.
Most of the babies act like they are playing tag with each other.
If the babies’ tank is covered with a cloth for a long time, then if you shone a light then they would follow it.
The babies start out as eggs.

Sea Monkey Care

Every day you have to give the sea monkeys fresh air because they need air.
Once or twice a week you have to feed them their growth food.
You always need them to be at the right temperature or else they will die.

Interesting facts

The scientific name for sea monkey is Artemia Salina.
Most sea monkeys mate when they are 4 to 6 weeks old.
Some sea monkeys live up to 2 years old.
If you let the water they live in evaporate, then the salt content might make it too salty and all the sea monkeys might die.


More:

Sea Monkeys have one eye when they are born and eventually they grow two more eyes making three!
In addition, they breathe through their feet!

Sea Monkeys molt their shells. The molts look kind of a transparent/white. They molt their shell up to seven times during their lifetime.

National Sea-Monkey day is May 16th!


A visitor, (HocusPocus – 11/04/07), shared the following:

I have a neat experiment for older kids
Hypothesis:
Does the salinity of water affect the hatch rate (and/or survivability) of brine shrimp?

You would need to test a range, you can use 16 once water bottles. (brine shrimp eggs are found in the fish section of larger pet stores, they are fish food. I wouldn’t use “Sea-monkeys” as they are expensive and you can’t measure out exact numbers of eggs to put into the water. Get a large package of marine salt and some brine shrimp food (also found near the brine shrimp eggs) if you want to turn the shrimp into pets, if not, I suppose you could let them die off, but that’s a bit mean, since they are extremely cute and easily cared for.
Get a hydrometer and follow the recommended salinity on the brine shrimp egg package for a few controls, make sure all the water is the same temp and quality (bottled is best, like a few gallons of distilled water) Then alter the salinity up and down for each new group, do maybe 3 bottles of each group (four groups would be best, as more 12 bottles is pretty hard to keep perfectly controlled) then you can record how many eggs hatch and how many of the zoea ultimately survive a certain period of time (2 weeks is a good goal, if you are feeding them of course) then you can see how specific salinity levels affect the survival rate and hatch rate of brine shrimp!


… also some further information on Sea Monkeys from HokusPokus: (11/04/07)

The Aquarium that comes with the kit’s is large enough to safely hold around 75 monkeys, it can contain up to 100, but they generally are not happy and some may die. If your tank does have that many monkey’s in it, you should use the large end of the spoon and just make sure the water is clear (not milky or green) before feeding again. You can “upgrade” your sea monkeys to a mansion home by doing the following: Get a 1/2 gallon goldfish bowl (the tank you get with most kits is about 1/4 gallon) or a 1 gallon goldfish bowl, do not go any larger, or your monkey’s will be lost in the space! If you do 1/2 gallon, get two kit’s of instant life, the kit with just the three packets, the spoon and the magnifier, for 1 gallon, get 4 kits.

You can also get a ceramic fishbowl castle, as something for the monkey’s to do in such a large tank. Anyway, wash out the bowl 2 times in hot tap water, once in cold tap water and then once again in bottled water, THEN do the same thing with the ceramic castle. Put the castle in the bowl and fill it to about an inch below the lip (opening) with distilled water, stir in all four (or two if doing 1/2 gallon) packets of water purifier, wait 36 hours (since it is such a large tank, it takes longer to work) then carefully mix in all the packets of eggs, one at a time. The water HAS to be at 70-78 degrees, so you need to get a thermometer and probably a lamp to set the bowl under constantly.

After a few hours (or days, up to about 10 days) you will finally see the babies with the magnifiers that came in the kit, it helps to place a piece of black fabric or paper behind the tank at first until they get bigger. You will have to feed them with the large spoon, because there will be a lot of them, and you may need to feed every 3-4 days if they eat a lot, You will know when they need to be fed and when they don’t by this simple check, if the water is clear and the monkeys are all white or pink, feed one large scoop, if the water is milky or greenish, OR if the monkeys have a dark stripe, usually green or brown, in the middle of their bodies, running from head to tail, they do not need food. But do not feed them for the first 5 days.

You will have to aerate a whole lot (3-4 times a day) as sea monkey’s run out of air fast or you can get a very small aquarium pump (like the kind for 5 gallon aquariums or smaller) and a length of air tubing and a bubble stone. You should also get a flow restrictor to control how hard the air flows, too much air flow can kill the helpless babies, or you can tie a tight knot in the tubing. This seems like a lot of work and it can be pricey, but you will be really rewarded with your very large sea monkey family! Up to 200 monkeys in a 1/2 gallon or 400 in a 1 gallon! How about telling your friends you have 400 pets!!!!! Try naming them all.


Sea Monkeys got their name from other aquatic animals like for example: Sea Cow Sea Lion Sea Horse SEA MONKEYS!
sent in by Holly Riggs    02-04-08
Sea monkeys are a type of Brine shrimp which means that they’re a type of shrimp!
   sent by Holly Riggs   03-16-08