# Sea-Monkey Semi-Planted Nano Extravaganza!



## BiscayneBoulevard

Hi all,

After a conversation with a friend recently, I have decided to nurture my inner child and invest in some sea-monkeys, to keep as pets, rather than food for my fish. However, whilst thinking about the sea-monkeys I used to have as a kid, I realised that the whole thing was really just novelty animal cruelty. Apparently sea-monkeys can live for 2 years - but never really get past a few months in those tiny, unfiltered tanks.. and who's ever heard of water changes for sea-monkeys?

But, unwilling to give up my dream of sea monkeys, I've decided to provide them with the best tank I possibly can - a tank with plants and ornaments. Has anybody tried this? I was thinking of setting up an El-natural tank for them and growing a few nice plants like cabomba for them.. but I remember as a kid putting them into a tank with gravel and having them disappear. So I thought perhaps I could grow a bit of floating cabomba, some duck weed, and a nice thicket of java moss attached to some larger rocks that they cannot get lost in - no gravel or soil.

Anybody have any tips, experience, etc? I haven't really had a go at taking care of sea-monkeys properly, but I think having their tank filtered by plants would definitely be an improvement to those little boxes of death that they usually live in.


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## Six

search for "raising brine shrimp". one and the same. 

u know they are a brine-water animal, right? no plants will survive in the solution you'll need to make of salt water. 

i think you'll be happier with ostracods. i have them growing in my 10g shrimp tank. similar in size, but way cooler imo. i also have freshwater "livebearing" leaches. (they are very cool).


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## crataegus

BiscayneBoulevard said:


> Hi all,
> 
> After a conversation with a friend recently, I have decided to nurture my inner child and invest in some sea-monkeys, to keep as pets, rather than food for my fish. However, whilst thinking about the sea-monkeys I used to have as a kid, I realised that the whole thing was really just novelty animal cruelty. Apparently sea-monkeys can live for 2 years - but never really get past a few months in those tiny, unfiltered tanks.. and who's ever heard of water changes for sea-monkeys?
> 
> But, unwilling to give up my dream of sea monkeys, I've decided to provide them with the best tank I possibly can - a tank with plants and ornaments. Has anybody tried this? I was thinking of setting up an El-natural tank for them and growing a few nice plants like cabomba for them.. but I remember as a kid putting them into a tank with gravel and having them disappear. So I thought perhaps I could grow a bit of floating cabomba, some duck weed, and a nice thicket of java moss attached to some larger rocks that they cannot get lost in - no gravel or soil.
> 
> Anybody have any tips, experience, etc? I haven't really had a go at taking care of sea-monkeys properly, but I think having their tank filtered by plants would definitely be an improvement to those little boxes of death that they usually live in.


(If you get the catalog for Sea Monkeys, there is an eye dropper and water mix to do water changes in those tiny 12-16 oz tanks.)

I actually had a 10 gallon tank of sea monkeys for a year or so as a teenager. It survived by being utterly coated with green algae in a greenhouse. (It was a former marine tank for sea horses that had died. I'd removed the filter, but I left in the gravel substrate and shells. The algae might have been from airborne spores or spores in the food sold for Sea Monkeys.) Those Sea Monkeys may have actually lived longer, but when we moved, I left the tank at the house.

Since they require a pretty high salinity to thrive, I'm not sure what plants other than unicellular green algae you could grow with them. You might be able to raise them in sea water salinity levels, but I don't know about brackish. Brine shrimp also are reputed to put out a lot more ammonia than you'd expect.

There are freshwater Artemia species (generally known as fairy shrimp), but they're not commercially available as far as I know. Most are vernal pool species that won't survive for long in a constantly wet environment. I've read about some species that do not require a cycle of drought and vernal flooding to reproduce, but I don't remember the species names. You might ask your county extension office (or a nearby university with a large biological sciences program) if they can refer you to a freshwater crustacean expert in your area. If you do hear about a commercially available fairy shrimp that doesn't require drought, please let the rest of us know!


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## ed seeley

You might have to go with marine algae rather than plants and keep the water at near sea water concentration, if the monkeys will live in that rather than stronger brine?

Or will Java ferns cope? Know they can handle brackish water, but full strength might be too much for them.


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## 247Plants

Mysis Shrimp are fairly small too and can live submerged in fresh water....


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## BiscayneBoulevard

Sea-Monkeys, Triops: perfect-pets and Sea-Monkeys Fairy Shrimps
The Netfysh - The Educational and Fun UK Mail Order

I'm not sure if these eggs require drought, but they seem fairly availiable. Just type in "fairy shrimp eggs" in Google. Do you know how many days of wet/dry the fairy shrimp need? Eg how long will they live (and then do I dry out the tank to start over? It sounds similar to triops)

I may go for triops instead.. they sound quite cool. How much water per triop do I need? The ones I am looking at grow to 2 inches apparently. Either that, or I will go the fairy shrimp route.

But failing all that - will the algae easily grow in my sea monkey tank? It receives light from the tank next to it, but doesn't have its own light source.


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## Shrimp&Snails

Go for Triops. They are lovely creatures and there's a larger European variety available aswell as the American type.

There was some wonderful threads on a site I visit but these sadly got deleted along with the old threads in the chat section.

Here's a link to some fabulous photos taken by a member there who's also a member on this site:

Applesnail.net :: View topic - Rain's Triops (lots of pictures, 56K warning)


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## BiscayneBoulevard

Thank you so much for that site - those are some amazing Triops photos! Do you know how much space Triops need? At the moment my four fish tanks are full - the only one I can use is less than a gallon (3 litres).. I've read about Triops cannibalising each other in smaller tanks... and if this is the case I'd rather get shrimp until I can give the Triops a large enough home.

Can Triops live well with plants, or do they destroy them?

And this is probaly a stupid question.. but.. do they bite? They look so unusual... I'm both attracted to and scared of them at the same time.


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## Shrimp&Snails

Sadly the info about them went with the old chat....I had a search around on that site again but no luck.

I think they are ok in a planted tank and more space would probably be better since they like very good water quality. As far as I know they don't bite.

I'm hoping rain will see this post and be able to give you more sound advice.


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## neonfish3

My vote is for Triops!
Easy to keep, active, grow amazingly fast, they don't bite, colorful, they are great pets.
Heres one of mine:


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## BiscayneBoulevard

That is a great picture Steve! Thanks for posting it. Unfortunately I only have a 3 litre tank, and I think this is too small for Triops. How large is your tank? Do you/can you keep them with plants?


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## neonfish3

Those were in a 1 gallon tank, with plants. I didn't see them eat any plants. I bought the kit and they give you a really little tank,(~1liter) I used it to raise the babies till they were about 1cm, then I put them in the 1 gallon tank. I did have about 12 hatch, but only had 3 survive. Mine just started carrying egges at about 4 weeks and they were about 4 cm. when my 5 yr. old son put a half a cheese sandwich in the tank to feed them . I was gone for the weekend and it polluted the tank and they all died.


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## BiscayneBoulevard

I like your signature. Can I call you Smokey Steve?

In that case... I might try getting a little plastic tank for them, if I can find Triops eggs here.. I have never seen them before. What a shame about the fatal sandwich! Have you hatched any more since? (Did you keep them with sand by the way?)


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