March 2007 - Posts

The 'Care Free' Project: Check Up Two

posted Thursday, March 29, 2007 10:02 AM by SeaMonkeyMan
Everything seems to be pretty good so far. The only thing I'm upset with right now is the fact that they are ALL boys! I don't understand why lately but all of my Sea Monkeys and Brine shrimp have been males. So much for births! I skipped last feeding day because their bellies were full. I'll probably feed them some time tonight. I'm also considering starting a one-gallon tank, but I have to restock my Sea Monkey Products.


Next Time: The 'Care Free' Project: Check Up Three

The 'Care Free' Project: Check Up One

posted Tuesday, March 20, 2007 9:47 PM by SeaMonkeyMan
So far so good! I've fed them yesterday and stirred the food in as I did last feeding method. I have NOT aerated at all since the last time and they seem to be doing fine. They are coming up for air, and have a normal color (not red as most oxygen deprived monkeys are). Unfortunately, the Brine Shrimp have once again all died. (Boy they are difficult to deal with.) I believe my mistake there was the fact that I was also not aerating them. Since they grow slower, they had not reached the stage at which they would come up for air on their own, so I now know that they must be aerated equally as much. By survival of the fittest, there are about eight adults left and maybe four or five babies. No sign of egg sacks just yet.


Next Time: The 'Care Free' Project: Check Up Two

The 'Care Free' Project: Feeding Day!

posted Sunday, March 11, 2007 3:41 PM by SeaMonkeyMan
In looking at the tanks, the Sea Monkeys are thriving, and all of the brine shrimp have died. This is because I didn't use any agents that I usually use in a brine shrimp tank. I used regular non-iodized salt, and by looking at the container, I see that it has absorbic acid in it, so they didn't like that very much. I've restarted that tank and this time I used authentic Sea Salt and Baking Soda like I normally would do. This time I left the Epsom salts out, so we'll see how that goes.

Feeding Method
Today, I added a scoup of food on the top of the water and let it sit there for about 30 minutes as the Sea Monkey swam around collecting particles. Then, I mixed it all in and aerated. From this point on, I'm slowly starting to taper off on the aeration. They are currently frollicking along happily, and yesterday I didn't aerate them at all. They have gotten accostomed to coming up for air now since they are a little older, but I see new babies, so I'm not going to turn it off for good just yet.


Next Time: The 'Care Free' Project: Check Up One

The 'Care Free' Project: Prosperous?

posted Wednesday, March 07, 2007 3:05 PM by SeaMonkeyMan
Pretty good! It seems that the same amount of monkeys are here from Day one, so that's good. Also, I failed to mention in my last post, I am also running a Brine Shrimp (MagiQuarium) tank next to this one that I started on the same day. Right now they are both doing equally. I am only aerating once a day, and they are getting indirect sunlight. In the Ghostly Galleon, the early signs of algae are starting to appear. More to come later, so far so good!


Next Time: The 'Care Free' Project: Feeding Day!

The 'Care Free' Project: Days One and Two

posted Saturday, March 03, 2007 4:18 PM by SeaMonkeyMan
As many of you know, I've decided to try something new. I was introduced to Sea Monkeys in the early 90s as a kid, and I remember not having to do much at all to take care of them. They were sitting on my bookshelf, I NEVER aerated them (aeration wasn't even discussed then, not even in the instructions) and I had a colony for a little over 2 years! It could have been longer, but my little sister poured them out -_-.

So, to bring back that time, I am doing the same thing again to test the results. I will only aerate them for the first few days (babies need the air) using a pipet, and after that, the pipet goes into the drawer! I will feed them the traditional way by just adding the scoup on top of the water, but I will stir it in to make sure that they are getting the food. As far as light goes, they will be on my dresser near the window, but they will be receiving shaded light. I remember my old room as a kid didn't get much light, and the Sea Monkeys were sitting in between books and algae grew just fine (probably why aeration wasn't needed).

I'm using the Ghostly Galleon (love it because it's great for algae growth) and yesterday was Day One where I added the purifier. Today marks Day Two and I've added the egg packet. Of course there are babies swimming around at the moment due to the Purfier Packet having eggs. :) Can't count them at the moment but there are a lot. Survival of the fittest will probably move them down a bit by the end of the week. I guess that's all for today, nothing much left to do but wait for the new batch to arrive tomorrow!

Next Time: The 'Care Free' Project: Prosperous?