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So you’ve decided that you’d like to provide larger living quarters for your pet Sea-Monkeys. Sure, why not… we’d all like a bigger home wouldn’t we? The bigger the home, the bigger the family can be! Well, this certainly is achievable and can be a lot of fun as well… if you’re willing to take the proper care.
Ok, you’ve established that you want to go for it… but before you begin, you have to figure out how big the aquarium should be. I would strongly suggest not going with anything bigger than a 1 gallon tank. I have a 1 gallon aquarium that has worked very well for me, but I’ve also raised Sea-Monkeys in a 2 gallon tank. The problem with raising them in anything larger than 1 gallon is that they tend to get visually lost unless you have a lot (and I mean a lot) more Sea-Monkeys than you’d normally need. For example, You’ll need 3 or 4 packets of Instant Live Eggs for a one gallon tank and do well… whereas, you’ll need 7 or 8 packets to adequately fill a 2 gallon tank. Now let’s say something goes wrong a few weeks after you’ve started your new tank (this has happened to me) and your Sea-Monkeys perish. How much do you want to pay to start over again? You’ll find that a 1 gallon tank is also a lot more economical. Trust me, a 1 gallon tank is huge when compared to a standard Sea-Monkey aquarium. It’s more like a Sea-Monkey mansion. I would now classify a 2 gallon tank as overkill.
First off, for a 1 gallon tank, you're gonna need to buy 4 packets of Jumbo Living Plasma from Transcience. But they're only 1 dollar a piece so that's only 4 bucks for starters. Then, you're going to want to probably buy about 4 packets of instant life eggs. I would also invest in an extra packet or two of growth food, and definitely a packet of Sea-Medic. Now we're up to about 20 dollars (without shipping costs). Next, buy some fine aquarium gravel... by "fine" I mean a gravel where the pebbles are small. Too large and your Sea-Monkeys can get wedged and stuck between the crevices of the pebbles. This happened with my 2 gallon tank and I lost a large number of them before I figured out what was happening. My 1 gallon tank has much smaller gravel and it's never been a problem. So the smaller the pebbles the better (shop around!). Another consideration is to find a dark colored gravel for your aquarium… preferably black. This will aid in helping you to better see your Sea-Monkeys. Also, before utilizing the pebbles, soak and rinse them several times with hot water before using. This will clean off residue that can be harmful to your Sea-Monkeys. Also do the same with any aquarium ornaments you plan on using. And be sure it's safe to use them for salt water tanks. Some ornaments have metal parts... these are generally intended for fresh water tanks only so stay away from those. Before going any further, make sure that you’ve also rinsed your tank with warm water several times, and then do a final rinse with bottled water. Then go ahead and place the above mentioned items into your tank (including the air pump assembly). I'm of course assuming you have an electric air pump for your aquarium. If not, you're going to want to get one. It's important in a tank of this size to have it constantly aerated... although you should only set it to a slow trickle of bubbles from the air stone. If you can't adjust the airflow with your pump, then buy an inline regulator valve for the hose to accomplish this. The exception to this is if your aquarium comes with a below-gravel filter/aeration system... if this is the case you likely won’t have to worry about limiting air flow to the bubble stone. Lastly, make sure you purchase an aquarium thermometer for your tank so you can assure that you’re keeping the tank temperature between 70 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit.
When preparing the Living Plasma mixture, make sure you mix it with the water ‘before’ placing it in the tank. I suggest the following. Buy a 1 gallon jug of quality distilled water from you local grocery store. Now carefully pour the 4 packs of Living Plasma into the jug of distilled water. Then place the cap back onto the jug and shake it thoroughly for about a minute to mix the water with the Plasma. Now you can go ahead and pour the mixture into the tank… but pour it ‘slowly’ so as not to disturb the gravel and ornaments. You'll probably find that with the gravel and ornaments inside, that you'll have a bit formula left over. This is good. Just set it aside in storage for whenever you need to top off the tank (it will keep for a 'very' long time... as salt is a preservative). With everything set up, and with the air-pump on (with a slow, bubble trickle) let it all sit for 2 days. After 2 days add a scoop (with the large end of a Sea-Monkey feeding spoon) of Sea-Medic to the water. This is to kill off any bacteria that may have formed (or may be forming) due to any residue. And just when you thought you were ready to hatch your new colony, it’s now time to… wait another 2 days (I know, I know, it’s a lot of waiting).
You’ve waited for the final 2 days, and now you’re ready (and very anxious I would guess) to start you new mega-colony of Sea-Monkeys in their new aquatic mansion. Well what are you waiting for? Go ahead and add all of the packets of Instant Live Eggs. I suggest using an Aqua-Leash to aid in dissolving the eggs into the water. Just be careful not to disturb the gravel and ornaments. 60 seconds goes by and you look carefully for newborn hatchlings wriggling around in the water… but… you can’t find any. You wait longer, and still no baby Sea-Monkeys. Now several hours have gone by and you’re getting really worried. You’re thinking to yourself “what have I done wrong”? Don’t be too concerned about this. It can take as long as 36 to 48 hours before you see any hatchlings. I won’t go into details as to why… other than to say that packets of Jumbo Living Plasma contain no Sea-Monkey eggs while packets of Water Purifier do indeed contain a few. I’ll let you figure it out from there. Once they hatch, wait at least 3 days before feeding them for the first time. If you have a good healthy colony, consider feeding them once every 7 days with a large scoop of food. Lastly, I've found it very helpful to add a large scoop of Sea-Medic on a regularly basis (whether they're sick or not). I do this for my smaller tanks as well, however I only add 1 small scoop every 5 or 6 weeks. But for a tank of this size, I would suggest one large scoop every 2 or 3 weeks. This helps greatly in keeping harmful bacteria at bay.
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