Category: Sea-Monkeys

I think I’m starting to see where the name “Sea-Monkey” comes from. The largest of my brood are now in excess of 1/4-inch long, at least half of which is tail. So with their little black eyes set high on their heads like monkey ears, and their long, thin tails trailing behind, you can squint your eyes, sniff some paint thinner and envision the little beasties as swimming monkeys. Almost.

Their legs or fins (whichever they are) are becoming more distinct. They still retain a collectively diaphanous quality; yet have a noticeable ribbed appearance that distinguishes the individual limbs.

The entire colony has been very active this week, constantly darting around the Ocean-Zoo. Often a Sea-Monkey will curl into a tight ball and somersault in place for a moment before stretching out and resuming its journey. Some of this behavior may be related to moulting.

The froom at the bottom of the tank holds special appeal. They dip their faces it in, sometimes having a little wallow in the muck, then trailing fragments of tank scum upward as they return to their circling. Another new development: If I’m not mistaken, the little dark-green granules that now highlight the topography of the tank floor may be Sea-Monkey poop.

The life of a young Sea-Monkey is a solitary one. Each conducts the business of the day completely oblivious to the presence of all the rest. Occasionally one Sea-Monkey will bump into another, but they shake if off without acknowledgement and return to their separate agendas.

I am still awaiting my shipment of Red Magic vitamins. The Sea-Monkeys are all the same algae-green as their food, so I’m hoping that a little artificial coloring will jazz things up.

So that’s my final report for this week. Monday will mark another feeding and another growth-spurt opportunity. We’ll see what happens!

What a difference a weekend can make! When I last observed my tiny charges, they were barely revealing a hint of miniscule legs when they swam. Now there are at least a dozen specimens with visible black eyes, wavy villi (I’m not sure they’re actually legs), and a stripe from head to tail that is probably their little digestive system.

They are swimming happily (and rapidly!) through their underwater world, pausing now and then to sample the algae-flavored goodness of the bottom of the tank. Their tank is so clean that aerating it doesn’t even stir up much debris anymore. (In case you’re wondering, I blow bubbles in their water every day with a straw, per the instructions of one of the Sea-Monkey aficionado sites. The important part is remembering not to breathe in before letting go of the straw…)

Interestingly, there are still itty-bitty Sea-Monkeys in the tank as well. I don’t know if they hatched late or are the offspring of the larger ones. The literature makes claims about adult Sea-Monkeys reproducing, but it is vague about how old a Sea-Monkey has to be before it’s considered an adult.

In reading over the Official Sea-Monkey Handbook, I discovered that I am now supposed to be feeding them every three days (the five-day feeding schedule was just for the first week). No wonder their tank was so clean! I quickly provided them with another scooplet of Growth Food, which I’m sure they’ll appreciate. That it did not set off a carp-like feeding frenzy reassures me that they were in no danger of starving.

So that’s today’s report. At the rate the little shrimp are growing, I wouldn’t be surprised if each feeding results in equally dramatic changes. I’ll keep you posted!

Now that the tiny crustaceans are alive and growing, I thought it would be best to make a switch to weekly reports. If something extraordinary happens, I’ll provide a Special Update.

All of the Sea-Monkeys have grown noticeably since last week. Some are larger than others, but all swim about vigorously. All are now definitely white in color – the few that appeared pink last week have lost their rosy hue.

Not to worry, though: According to the Official Sea-Monkey Handbook (“It’s Fun To Raise Pet Sea Monkeys”), I can purchase, for a mere $2.00 plus shipping & handling, “‘Red Magic’ Sea-Monkey Vitamins” to make the little critters reddish again. According to the manual, “This is the formula containing EVERY KNOWN VITAMIN your Sea-Monkeys NEED for robust health. Sea-Monkey owners who truly LOVE their pets should include “RED-MAGIC” in their diet. It not only insures a long, healthy life, [but] adds a pretty red ‘tone’ to their pale bodies.” Well, I’M sold! Purple prose like that cannot be ignored!!

Meanwhile, I have not yet fed my young charges. They have done an excellent job of de-murking the tank, and they seem to get extra excited when I move their Zoo enough to make the remaining detritus float around. I am planning to give them a scooplet of food tomorrow, which I believe is the one-week anniversary of their hatching (or at least of their achievement of visibility to the naked eye). Thereafter they will be fed weekly, unless their tank is too grody.

An interesting appearance note: baby Sea-Monkeys are clearly wider at the head end than at the tail, which gives them a vaguely “lobster-y” shape. You can’t actually see their little legs yet, but you get an impression of them just the same. Most of their movement is in rapid little somersaults, and they can make it from the bottom to the top of the Ocean-Zoo in no time.

Well, that’s my report. I’m still not sure how many little bottom- feeders I have, because the water is cloudy enough to obscure the view in the tank from one wall to another. There are at least a dozen, I’m sure. Once I have a better count (and they’re easier to tell apart), we’ll have a “Name the Sea-Monkeys” contest!

Christy and Allison, the Marketing Babe godmothers of the Sea-Monkeys, sent me some links to various Sea-Monkey fan sites containing valuable care information. The instructions that come with the Sea-Monkeys Ocean-Zoo are contradictory and vague in the extreme, so I had to rely on the web sites for valuable trouble-shooting information. It was on the Sea Monkey Worship Page that I found a description of exactly how full of water the Ocean-Zoo should be to create the correct electrolyte balance to promote life.

Before I left work yesterday, I proceeded to top-off the Ocean-Zoo level to the top magnifier bubble, per the online instructions. At that point I figured I had nothing to lose.

Today I see…Sea-Monkeys! After nearly an entire week of peering into their murky little tank and seeing nothing, I spotted a handful of vigorous swimmers this morning. They are very small (1mm tops), and most of them are white except for one pinkish specimen. It’s hard to spot them in my dark cubicle, but when the Ocean-Zoo is placed on a windowsill, the show begins.

It’s hard to tell how many of them are in there right now. When they get a little bigger and suck up some of the tank flotsam, it will be easier to take a census.

That’s today’s report. Maybe by Monday they’ll be easier to count.

July 11, 2000

On July 7, 2000, some of my friends presented me with the birthday gift of a lifetime: The Amazing Live Sea-Monkeys Ocean-Zoo. Anyone born after 1950 understands the magic and mystery of the Sea-Monkey. Growing up, I had seen the ads in comic books and marveled (somewhat skeptically, to be sure) at the cartoons depicting the Sea-Monkey family with their little royal crowns and spiffy ‘50s wardrobes. Like most people, I had never actually started a Sea-Monkey colony or observed the creatures in the flesh.

The following is my account of the experience of creating and maintaining “Instant Life” (i.e. bug-like brine shrimp in water) on my desk. It is broken into installments, which were e-mailed to a rapidly growing list of subscribers beginning with the day I first attempted to hatch the Sea-Monkeys.

On Friday, I carefully read the directions to The Amazing Live Sea-Monkeys Ocean-Zoo (“absolutely guaranteed to grow!”) then filled the Zoo with filtered water and stirred in the water purifier packet. There were lots of warnings about letting the water sit AT LEAST 24-30 hours before adding the eggs. Since it didn’t say anything bad about letting the water sit longer than that, I decided to leave the Zoo on my desk over the weekend and create life on Monday.

It turns out that a lot of water can evaporate over a weekend. Since the instructions had carried dire cautions about mineral concentrations, I figured it would be okay to top off the tank with more purified water. Then, I stirred in the Instant Life packet, which turned the water greenish and caused some sediment to form at the bottom of the tank. I periodically peered into the cloudy water throughout the day, but I couldn’t tell if the little floating black dots were alive or not. According to the instruction book, it is hard to spot the Sea Monkeys the first day, but they would be TWICE AS BIG the next day.

Already, it was occurring to me that a guy in Bryans Road, Maryland spends all his time laughing and laughing at the thought of people straining their eyes to look at $10 “dots-of-marine-debris-in-a-jar-of-water” that he’s made his fortune selling since the 1950s.

Today I was anticipating the sight of double-sized little floating black dots, but, frankly, they all look the same as they did yesterday. It is completely impossible to tell if the dots in question are moving of their own volition or are just stirred up by the jiggling water when I pick up the Zoo.

I am still optimistic that I am supporting Instant Life. They (assuming there is a “they”) don’t need to be fed until Monday, so I am so far spared the potential embarrassment of “feeding” a tank full of nothing. My main areas of self-doubt and guilt so far are:

1. Did I let the water sit too long before I added the Instant Life? and
2. Was it bad to add more water right before trying to hatch the eggs?

I’m sure I’ll get over it with sufficient counseling.