Sea Monkey Experiment: Epic FAIL!
Here's a followup on the Sea Monkey Experiment. On Thursday, there were about 30-40 baby sea monkeys happily swimming. When I checked them today, there were maybe 4 or 5 babies. MASS EXTINCTION! Both older Sea Monkeys were still alive.
So, not sure what happened here. I don't think it was the food, because they seemed content when I left them. There was no issue with environment as I had both the control group and the Sea Monkeys on Mars tank right next to each other, and there was no change in the population.
Conclusion: CONFUSED!
The Great Sea Monkey Experiment
A few months ago, I was shopping with a friend at Target. Never being able to successfully pass the Toy Department without sneaking a glance, we stumbled upon a Sea Monkey kit. It was only $7, so what the heck.
They are in my cubicle at the office and have grown quite large. What's nice about them is that you only have to feed them once a week and never have to clean their cage, except for the occasional salt deposits left on the sides from evaporation. And the life expectancy on these things is 2 years! Wowzas!
I've been reading as much as I can on these little critters and found one standard refrain: Don't feed them anything but official Sea Monkey food. They also say if you leave them in indirect sunlight, some algae might grow and be a free source of food. Sea Monkeys are translucent, so it's easy to tell if they are getting the right amount of food because you can see how dark their digestive tracts are. Too light, you aren't feeding them enough. And you get a YEARS supply of food with the kit, (for a mere $3, you can buy more if needed (plus s&h of course).
Now if you don't know, Sea Monkeys are a species of brine shrimp that were bred for their long lives. Brine Shrimp, eh? That gave me an idea. What would happen if I mixed regular Brine Shrimp in with the Sea Monkeys? Would they cross breed and make a Super Sea Monkey? There was only one way to find out.
I went to quite a few pet stores looking for Brine Shrimp eggs. I finally found a store that sold em. Then I headed off to good ol Toys R Us and got myself a Sea Monkeys on Mars kit. Followed the directions as normal but also added the Brine Shrimp eggs in.
(not my photo--I work for a government contractor so they don't really allow pictures)