August 2006 - Posts
Well I said I'd be here to tell you about a swarm. This is a really successful hatch and I have the blister card to thank for it. I've noticed on the forums that a lot of people seem to have problems with the packets that come with the mars kit itself but when they use a blister card everything goes fine. I could count around 5 yesterday morning, its now evening here and there has got to be near 30 babies swimming around WOO! I'm so happy I'll be feeding them in two days time (as everythings gone as instructions described).
Ill use this for ship tank again as not a lot to report, some have reached the end of their natural life, damn gro-kwickly haha. I'll definitely open up the normal food for this mars tank. I'll hopefully have a third tank coming up soon but in the mean time see ya. I might start taking some more pictures and videos of both tanks for your enjoyment, see you soon!!!
Wow, the most successful tank I've EVER had (albeit this is my 3rd tank out of 4). Second time trying and it worked. Overnight the yolks started coming out of the eggs in packet 1, this morning I looked and they were in the air baloon formation. I added packet two and stirred, a while later I could spot a few reddy white dots swimming around. Of course I aerated before adding packet 2 and am going to leave it for the day. Im so excited lmao.
I'll be waiting till tomorrow now to see if the rest of them hatch, it's a real nice sunny day and I think it will encourage them to hatch. Hopefully tomorrow Ill be making a post about the swarm of them all haha. Ill post about ship tank here as well. I keep seeing babies but they keep disappearing, I don't think they're dieing there's just not that many right now. Hopefully the sunny weather will make them hatch as well. C ya soon everyone!!
Well here we are, its been well over three weeks since the first batch of eggs were placed in the mars tank and still nothing. I decided to go to Toys R Us and buy a new instant life started kit. I also went to tesco and bought some still water. I sit here now thinking and hoping this is wrong, I believe still is completely different to distilled and just means not fizzy. I really hope they didn't label it in that context :(. Anyway I got home and rinsed the mars tank completely. Then added the still water up to the mark and then stirred in the purifier with the handle end of a make up brush (CLEANED).
Don't forget the aeration, I didn't, the mars tank is COVERED in bubbles, lets just say there won't be any complaints about being unable to breathe. I'm going to wait the whole 24 hours maybe longer before adding the eggs, even though I know this isn't necessary. I would just like to wait and see if the eggs in packet 1 hatch (if I can see through the bubbles). I'll wait around 30 hours and if I see nothing Ill stir in packet 2. But I won't aerate as surely if its a flaming wall of bubbles they don't need more aeration... Anyway I'll leave you for now, my ship tank is doing fine btw, no post needed on that really. I'm going to get a hydrometer soon though as after the incident I wanna make sure its not under saline. C ya!
This post is a long one lol, well not too long, but it's been 11 days since my last post and I have a lot to tell. I'll start it off nice and simple...
Well after my last post I went to a caravan park for 8 days in felixstowe (england). It was nice but I won't go into that as this is about the Sea Monkeys lmao. Anyway the journey there was a laugh in the car. I had cellophane (sp?) on the top of the tank with the lid securing it. Then a sandwich bagover the whole thing and a carrier bag around it. This was then put in a compartment of the car while we drove a bumpy drive to the caravan park. We got there and the bag... was soaked...
Funnily enough, my tank had barely lost any water and my mum and co thought it was condensation, I was like... ya... so I filled the tank back up with water and let it all settle blah blah. Didn't bother adding anymore formula as a plasma II dosage would be coming up in the next few days and that would fix that. As a few days went on I fed them and gave them the dosage as well as some Sea medic just incase the big bad bacteria came in. Next up I thought they were big enough to try the infamous sea diamonds...
AH wasn't that a laugh. I know they're rubbish anyway, they hadn't killed any of them luckily. Anyway moving on while on the beach I found some algae on a rock :D. I picked some up and placed it into the tank when I got back. So I'm now aerating less and hoping that grows enough to supply them a good amount of oxygen and food. Not much else happened so here goes..
The journey home was the worst, I dropped the tank in the car!!!. Once again not a lot of water loss, and not a lot of Sea Monkey loass as far as I could tell in the car, and now actually. It went to the bottom of the last magnifier so we were talking a substantial amount. When I got home I mixed like a large scoop of plasma III with the amount of water I was going to put in and voila, all sorted. I guess...
The time is now, I can see fluffy bits floating around, I know its bacteria, I'm ok though I like to see the good points of all this, I have sea medic ready, adults SMs ready to eat it all, as there a few babies happily swimming around. My colony is still going after Day 35 WOO!!!. Thanks go to everyone on this forum who have helped me to work out why they weren't working out during the first few days. In the meantime, the mars tank is just stationary, nothing happening. I'll buy another instant life kit and start again I suppose, so back to the every other day post and.. I'M BACK!!!
It's really nice for a Sea Monkey owner like myself to go downstairs check my Sea Monkey tank and find little white dots swimming around in the water. They weren't there before, I think it's safe to say the second generaion have finally started arriving. I know in future generations it will be really hard to work out but I'll get around it somehow. I don't feed them for a while as yet but their tank is really clear so I may have to. Apart from that more of the first generation are "at it" so I'll expect the rest of the generation to arrive soon.
In the meantime I'm going on holiday for 8 days starting tomorrow so I have no idea what is going to happen to my Sea Monkeys, naturally I want to take them but the car journey is surely a suicide mission in itself I guess I'll try some clingfilm and all should be well. It's just within that week I swear I have two feeds, a plasma and Sea medic dosage ARGH lol. Me and my perfectionism. Oh and btw the 4 eyes is no more, no it didn't die... the eyes... fell off! No seriously I was watching it sim and they just fell off and the SM didn't even seem bothered, I'm confused but sod it if they're all alive, bye!
Nice to see you again, this every other day malarky is much better as I have a lot less to report nowadays. I'm very happy to say I can see a large egg sac on one of my Sea Monkeys so hopefully I should be seeing more babies soon, just in time for the next dose of plasma. Just can't believe after only 15 days of life the second generation are ready to say hello lol. There's not a lot to add to the tank packet wise, I mean I will risk Sea Diamonds eventually but I still don't feel its worth it, if anything put them in when you first prepare the tank (As i don't believe in the getting trapped theory, they must be able to get out if they can get in.)
4 eyes is fine. Although I'm getting concerned as to whether those things are actually eyes, I mean Ive heard about the bacterial black dots but surely they'd be randomly place and not symetrical and in line with each eye. Co-incidence? But hey I guess all is well and I should be adding the Sea Medic within the week. I love that product lmao. Talking of products I'm thinking of getting red-magic and super food, the only packets left that I feel will have a difference. So see a in two days!!
This is going to be a short post, not a lot to say. Seriously I've waited over a week and nothing, I have such a successful other tank and I'm going to stick to looking after it, its the most sensible option. It means I can be more patient with this tank and just put it aside in hope of a hatch. Ill still aerate but I will have to leave you on this series of posts as there is no point hehe. I won't keep the day going either. When they hatch this tank post will be Re-Mars and so on. C ya around and I hope they eventually hatch.
Omg seriously I don't know why I have now decided for an every other day blog post. Well apart from the fact it doesn't get viewed much that is lol. Anyway yeh I have two extremely important news items in this one blog post. Number one is Gro-Kwickly has enhanced the speed in which my colony grows A LOT. I mean what is it, their 13th day of life and they're MATING lol. It is ridiculous I was expecting to wait another week or even more. I'm so happy though as with the plasma dose I coming up soon I should hopefully have even more babies swimming around.
And do you know what, I'm not transferring them over, this tank is so successfulI'm not risking their future by putting them in an unsuccessful tank. (I'll give you more information on that on my other post). Anyway second big news item is that maybe I'm going mad I don't know but I swear it's one eye when born, and this eventually leads to three. So why can I now find at LEAST 2 Sea Monkeys with 4 eyes? They have this weird part of their head where it as if they have antlers but at the end of each is an eye, making the total 4. I'm not going mad lol. But yes I'll have videos and pictures tomorrow. Cya!
Well that title means two things, they've certainly hatching, I mean I saw a tiny baby one swimming around this morning amongst the four I've put in, or five, wait FIVE???. When I added some eggs from the other tank I'm guessing I added the biggest SM into the mars tank as one is huge lmao. I might feed this tank soon caus 4 larger Sea Monkeys are not going to survive on the pre-made food much longer.
Anyway the second meaning was like I said I've seen the odd one or two swimming, so I've added more eggs from the other tank. Because I seriously thing I accidentally transferred loads of eggs to the ship tank when I was equalling the water from adding the 4 test monkeys. But hopefully everything should be sorted now and sod it I'm now going to feed them. A third tank is now definitely under discussion and it's going to either be executive set/pirate gold or in the city. They're the easiest three that I'd like to get so far, anyway see you lot tomorrow!
Ok, I admit it, plasma works too much lmao. Trust me thats good if you had an unsuccessful batch the first time round but as I already had 20-30 in there and I can now see tons of babies and a load of eggs at the top I'm starting to worry. But hey I've heard its 100 max so I'm happy, not as if I haven't been aerating enough. I have some steady algae growth now and thanks to Gtgoon I will be getting some orchid fertiliser from whatever store sells itand making it grow insanely. Can't wait.
Water level has dropped quite a bit with all the aerating lol, but I tipped it up with some more tap water, I know I know but its what I used in the first place. Albeit I put it in an empty hydroactive lucozade bottle so they may have some glucosyne as well (:O). But yes everything's fine it that tank, going to give them a dose of sea medic tomorrow to sort everything out. With all the eggs on the top I transferred some into the mars tank so hopefully thatll help. I got them under intense sunlight right now hoping they'll all hatch. See you tomorrow when I add the medic.
That's not the tank by the way lol, that's what I'm now calling my sea monkeys that refuse to appear, I'm worried that when I did the sea monkey trap some of the water I put in the ship tank to eqalise contained a lot of the eggs, as there are still some in that tank, however there are quite a few in this tank still and I can only hope. As I mentioned in the previous post, I'm now running two new experiments, to create tons of babies quick and fast and enough to ptut into this tank.
1) Gro-Kwickly - That's all I'm using for feeding right now, I would like them to mature quick enough to mate so that a lot of babies can be produced and I can transfer say half into this tank. I know it's risky as half is a big amount to take, I might shorten this as some from this tank may still hatch.
2) Algae growth - This is for both tanks really, but this tank needs time to actually grow some algae. I'm going to get some plant fertiliser and put MINUTE amounts into both tanks to make the algae grow really fast and efficiently, this should promote sea monkeys hatching and staying alive etc. So that way I can have enough to transfer once again.
I'll get back to you on both these experiments, but the first 1 is likely to be the most successful :D
I used gro-kiwckly again, if anything to run another simple experiment related to my other tank so I guess I'll talk about it in that post. Anyway for ANOTHER experiment lmao, (this one requires me to buy stuff), I want to promote algae growth like Gtgoon did on one of his tanks (the 'Algae!' thread in F.A.Q.). I've got thins layers of substances growing over the surface of the bottom of my tank and the ship. I know this could be a mixture of everything and anything ut some of it has got to be algae, I'll get some plant fertiliser soon and add a MINUTE amount. For now I'll let them settle with their food lmao.
Anyway I said I'd get back to you on the plasma situation, luckily the elders are still swimming around happily. I can see a few young'uns today that I guess hatched overnight. Only about 5 but since there were 10 that hatched originally and the packet says 50% more, I'll give a woo to that. But yes I'll have to get back to you on the algae growth as I don't know when I'll be buying the fertiliser, I just wish there was a bit more sun around. Anyway see you all tomorrow, in two days I'll be giving their fornightly dosage of sea medic, bye!
Well it seems plenty of oxygen and lots of light still isn't enough to tempt these darn monkeys. The sea monkey trap is still going well, I added an extra 'week-old' last night to keep the other company, still got plenty in the ship tank.So i have the two elders and the two young'uns and they are all still fine. I've got the tank near a window sill again I just hope it's enough. I want to beat my record of 7 days for time taken for a successful hatch. So please SMs, today or tomorrow I don't mind lol. *Thinks he shoud have used his strict hatching guide*.
Apart from that everything is cool I'm seeing brown dots with yolks galore. Perhaps a stir of the tank will force them out in order to make the hatching process quicker, I dunno. I've put a want it now request on ebay.co.uk in order to hopefully find someone who has a sea monkeys explor-a-sub/space shuttle or robo diver tank. Any of the three will do. I would just like a third tank and then perhaps I'll end my collection for a while as it will become too much maintenance. I'll come back tomorrow and tell you if even more light has helped the shy guys lol. C ya!
Well this morning I did the standard aeration business, then I thought, its day 10, its now or never, if they die I've learnt my lesson. I got my plasma III and added three large scoops, gave it a stir. That was this morning, it's now the afternoon. My elders are still swimming happily, and I'm seeing more young'uns YAY. It's working and hopefully will carry on over the course of the next few days. There seems to be a lot of fluff at the bottom but I'm guessing its algae as it did have a green tint until i stir the water and it all came up lol. I might feed tomorrow but might wait till thursday dunno.
Apparently now I have to add one large scoop every two weeks from today. I also need to incorporate the sea medic schedule, as I put a small scoop in on the 4th tank day, so I need to add some on the 18th day if I'm intended on doing a fortnightly schedule with that also. But yes I now have a list of essential packets: Sea Medic, to get rid of the germs and make sure its safe, Gro-Kwickly, to get them to grow a bit faster, Plasma III, to cause more to hatch. Its all good hehe, I'll give you more info on the plasma tomorrow to say how good it is doing. Cya!
I'm currently running an experiment, I started it yesterday night. It involved using the aqua leash for like the first time ever hehe, and taking a newborn sea monkey, a few days old sea monkey and a one week old sea monkey from the ship tank. I put all three into the mars tank and left it overnight, result...they're still alive and well. So in my opinion it really is a temperature issue for this batch to hatch. Its been cloudy the past few days and I've lost the precious sunlight that caused my other lot to hatch. But hey with these three in maybe itll do some good. In the meantime Im still aerating the tank and having a look now and then.
So for now you could say I have two tanks alive with sea monkeys. Actually I recommend it to people, just add a couple from your old tank to your new one, you never know what could happen, if your lucky it could be female and reproduce asexually. That's certainly my hope if none hatch lol. Well I was talking about other packets on my ship post and there's one or two I forgot to mention. For my big tank project whenever I start it I need to get the jumbo living plasma.. big tank I say. If they say mix packet 1 and the jumbo plasma to make 1 quart of the formula Ill get a one quart tank lol, whatever is easy. Also there's a discontinued one called Sea Fire which I'm wondering if anyone has ever come across, anyway see you guys soon.
Looked in the tank today, and flaming hell, I can spot more little babies swimming around. It's going to get confusing if it carries on like this as I'll never know what generation I'm on lol. Well it's one day away from plasma time I just hope my Sea Monkeys are ready for it, if I kill some of the older ones I'll just commit suicide on the spot lol, nah I'll be fine I just probably won't use it again as they've done pretty well so far. I just have faith in the products and as shown by sea medic, those supposedly 'useless' products do in fact work.
On the subject of that I really would like to try out some of the other packets, I've got few to try now but there is still cupids arrow, red magic vitamins, banana treat and super food. Out of those four its bltantly obvious that its the first two I should see actual results from. Cupids arrow would be a real backup plan if the plasma fails on me. I just think personally that its the people who put the plasma in way too late who think it doesn't work. Anyway I'll probably be ordering those two packets soon as well as getting back to you on adding the plasma hehe, see ya!
Still nothing I'm afraid to say today. I realy want to do the parent thing and transfer them from the ship tank to the mars tank. But I'd rather wait till I know babies can hatch and survive in the water before I add them. There are eggs around the tank so that can only be a good thing. To be honest I'm too focused on raising the ship tank as lnog as possible to be impatient about the mars tank. I really recommend two tanks actually. As once you've hatched one of them it gives you so much more patience for the other. If it took my ship tank 7 days Ill wait that long for this one hehe.
Its not as sunny as I would have hoped today but Im doing my best in order to give them as much light as possible. I am determined to have two successful tanks no matter how long it takes. As mentioned on my other tank post Ill prob get the ocean zoo soon but in terms of a decent tank Ill be getting the robo diver as my next big tank and if I can't find it Ill get the Hang 10 Mini World. But at this rate Ill be struggling to put them in places lol. It's bad enough with 3 cats in the house that like to jump everywhere hehe. Anyway Ill leave you all for another day, see you soon!
Its unbelievable that I have so many eggs at the top of my tank after all this time, every day I'll see the odd baby swimming around, I hope they're surviving. Every day its as if a new load have spawned while my fast growing others are doing really well also. There is now a nice sediment of algae growing at the bottom of my tank, up to 3mm in one part. Obviously this is also combined with food they haven't eaten. I don't know whether or not to wait 5 days or a week. I've forgotten the official time, its on the part so I'll look in a minute lol.
Did standard aeration as well, I'm very proud of them I just love to see them swim hehe. I was also happy to see some inside the ship yesterday. I was just looking casually and I could see one or two inside, fun! Anyway so hopefully these eggs will hatch soon and I'll have even more sea monkeys to see each morning. For now I'll leave you with the event that I'll hopefully be getting a cheap ocean zoo soon, though I'll prob wait till the Mars tank has had a successful hatch.
Well after all my rushing around Ive waited a day and am happy to see loads of eggs floating at the top. The sea medic step was taken early on so hopefully any infections should be non existent in the tank. I've put it under indirect light and hope to announce life tomorrow. Hey for all I know they could be swimming around now, as they are extremely tiny, its hard to see this (.) swimming around in 30cl of water. Ill just keep aerating in order to keep the eggs suspended and then hopefully all should be well.
Another kit that fascinates me is the Magic Castle. Hard to admit when your male, I really dont like the colour though XD. Its just I think its nice to have some sort of enclosure for them to be since, regardless of them being in the tank. The ship tank I have obviously has a hole in the ship but not once have I seen them swim in or out. With this I can observe it all. Anyway which me luck overnight as I wait another 24 hours with hope of a successful hatch :D.
Well today is probably the first non eventful day for my Sea Monkeys. Yet once again I'm proud they've got this far after all the problems with the water and first batch. This is their seventh day and I will be adding the plasma in three days. To be honest I will support the product if new babies are made from it and no adults die. But if they do, I will not be happy as it is clearly stated to add on the tenth day, i presume no sooner or later as the sea monkeys will be too mature to handle the salinity. But yes I'll probably start a product review article soon.
I really don't know whether or not I want to get the standard Ocean Zoo tank, I mean with all due respect I want my tanks to be unique, I already have an ocean zoo albeit with a ship inside, and the mars tank. I may as well go forth and get a robo diver but at the end of the day ocean zoo is cheap and hey I may even get ocean of fun. Anyway as it their seventh day of life today and they'e survived a week, as instructed on leading sea monkey websites I'm going to stop aerating every day and do every other day. However its not hard to do so I could carry it on.. who knows?
Well I've got to admit this is probably the quickest time I've spent preparing a tank lol. It arrived today for which I was truly amazed by as it was only bought a few days ago and was coming from Hong Kong. Anyway I boiled some water and then rinsed out the tank, I then boiled some water and cooled it as quickly as I possibly could as I was going out very shortly. Anyway I tipped it into the tank and straight away I added the sachet of purifier, the sachet of eggs and a spoonful of the sea medic. Stirred it all together and I'm leaving it overnight to see how everything goes.
It was extremely rushed and I wouldn't be suprised if I dont get good results but something tells me I will, the packet 1&2 stuff is not even true about adding one a day after the other. And sea medic you can add whenever so its cool. Although I'll tell you now my strict guide will advice you to wait t least 30 hours for the water to reach the right condition of salinity. Hehe, I'll use the guide for myself one day, perhaps for the standard ocean zoo tank which I can buy cheap so getting all the distilled water wont cost too much. Wish me luck in the morning as I should hopefully see TONS of babies lol.
Once again another product I'm impressed with. Overnight I've seen them all double in size and most of them are past the 1 week stage. I think the influctuation in size has caused the natural selection process to rid some of them. But I can still count a few of them as they approach adulthood. I'm very happy with their growth but I hope it doesn't affect their chances of survival when I add the plasma on their 10th day of life. For now they seem to be enjoying theirselves and the food combined with alage deposit is surely enough for them to survive.
I might even be tempted to add the sea diamonds soon, though im still dead set against them due to their ability to be a killing machine to all baby sea monkeys. I will probably share them between this tank and my mars but may even split it into 3 as I might just get ocean zoo at one point. Anyway best be off, wish me luck everyone!
I've aerated them today (got worries actually those bubbles are lethal weapons to the bigger sea monkeys). But I've now added some "gro-kwickly" for their first feed. I'd just like to mention that as this is my first try in yearsm I'd just like to see them reach adulthood as soon as possible before they end up suffering some major plague as most tanks in the UK do. Anyway they seem to know what theyre doing as they went straight to the food.
Apparently it takes 2 days to see the growth enhancement results. Today is the 5th day since they've hatched so I need to aerate tomorrow and saturday and then its finally every other day unless of course the algae growth get even better then I don't even need to do it so often. I've decided to have a fortnightly dose of sea medic as standard, it would be really beneficial for my sea monkeys after what the first hatchlings went through. Anyway I'll leave you with the wonder of them being fed. Tomorrow Ill give you news of how they've grown, or been overfed LMAO (i did use the correct measurement).
Well I'm not suprised as I've been giving them 60 pumps of oxygen a day for the past 3/4 days. They're doing loops like there is no tomorrow, and even the young'uns seem to be showing some speed. I'm really anxious to feed them but at the same time I'm so not sure. They're roughly 4 days old this batch and there is the minutest bit of algae in nooks of the tanks floor. Plus the first batch had barely enough sea monkeys to even touch the pre-prepared food. I think I'll leave it for one more day only, yet will seek advice on the forums.
I'm very happy with this batch of sea monkeys as despite no food yet they've grown amazingly fast, 4 days old yet they look more developed than the 1 week official photo. If I can feed today I will, I'll use some gro-kwickly as I don't wanna risk not seeing them in adult-hood. I can still wait till tomorrow though I supposed. Just to let you all know I'll be setting up a website soon on these creatures. Offering my STRICT guide to raising a successful batch of sea monkeys and reviews of all the products. But for know ya got this blog lol.
Well it's the 9th day of the tank but barely the 4th day of my batch's lives. One day till I feed them and the water is almost becoming really clear meaning I definitely need to feed them soon. I don't mean to be impatient, but as this is my first attempt in years I just want to see the results early, Ill be using gro-kwickly for their first feed and watch the results as the grow really quickly over the next two days. Talking of growing though, I can see distinguishable features on them now, its amazing. Some are really huge and I can see new babies have hatched. With 30 pumps this morning the eggs are suspended and ready to hatch. Im sure there's upto 30 ni there now.
This post is big but oh well lol. I'm in the aplhpa stages of a project I'd like to call the ideal tank. I'm running a forum topic on it, my mars kit is on the way and I'm planning on getting other big guns in the series such as robo-diver and explorasub. It should be here within the week. Anyway so far I've come up with a 1 quart tank with perhaps fake plants in there, inbuilt lighting and aeration. Ill leave here for now saying I'm so happy with my sea monkeys progress, I'll start double posts soon once I got the sea monkeys on mars kit hehe.