I'm not sure what happened...I'm sure I saw many live sea monkey hatchlings...and now I don't see any. Some possible problems:
1) PH level and/or temperature, since I wasn't monitoring those.
2) The spirulina flakes. I ground them up as fine as I could, but it still all sank to the bottom as far as I can tell. They might not have been able to get to it.
Nothing to do now but wait and see.
EDIT:
The spirulina flakes were definitely not ground finely enough to stay suspended in the water, but another problem may be the shape of my tank/power of my pump. It may be too easy for things to get stuck at the bottom/in the corners.
Showing posts with label don't do this. Show all posts
Showing posts with label don't do this. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Tough Little Guys
Sea monkeys are incredibly tough little guys. Even though most of my population was wiped out immediately when I transferred them to the new tank, I've been seeing 2-3 sea monkeys at a time moving around in there until yesterday, when I'm sorry to say the last one must have died.
It's amazing to think of what they can endure. I hate that they were suffering...I had a little water left in the old tank, and I considered trying to rescue them. However, on the advice of a responsible fish owner, I decided not to shock them again by moving them a second time, even if it was to more hospitable conditions.
I still can't bring myself quite yet to turn the pump off, just in case there are one or two still alive hidden in the fake plant. I am going away this weekend, and I will be picking up some brine shrimp eggs and aquarium or sea salt (since there seems to be no preference, I will just get whatever is cheaper). Next week I begin setting up the tank again!
It's amazing to think of what they can endure. I hate that they were suffering...I had a little water left in the old tank, and I considered trying to rescue them. However, on the advice of a responsible fish owner, I decided not to shock them again by moving them a second time, even if it was to more hospitable conditions.
I still can't bring myself quite yet to turn the pump off, just in case there are one or two still alive hidden in the fake plant. I am going away this weekend, and I will be picking up some brine shrimp eggs and aquarium or sea salt (since there seems to be no preference, I will just get whatever is cheaper). Next week I begin setting up the tank again!
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Disaster
So, I got overexcited, and overconfident, and screwed up, and currently my entire sea monkey population has been decimated.
The problem is this:
I was so excited about getting a bigger tank that I didn't take the time to make their transition as stress-free as possible. I should have done more research to find out what salinity would be best, and I DEFINITELY should not have used table salt. Because I used table salt when I did my first water change, and the population seemed to be holding steady, I got overconfident and thought that table salt would be okay. Stupid. Table salt has some stuff in it that aquarium or pure sea salt does not, like iodine.
Why is the water cloudy like that? Too much salt? I have no idea. But instead of making sure things were okay, I just waited a couple of days and then basically dumped my current tank into the bigger one.
It's been a few days now, and from what I can see in the cloudy water (which isn't much), I have one sea monkey left of the population of 15-20 that was holding steady in the smaller tank.
Sigh. Failure #1.
I am not going to give up, though. The next step is to get brine shrimp eggs and try to hatch them in the new tank, once I do some more research. Now that I have an idea of what sea monkeys are like, I will be able to tell if there are any real differences between them and "regular" brine shrimp.
So, I probably won't be making any posts for a week or two, but the page links should be growing as I find more information about sea monkeys and brine shrimp. After that, it'll be time to get some eggs and try again!
The problem is this:
I was so excited about getting a bigger tank that I didn't take the time to make their transition as stress-free as possible. I should have done more research to find out what salinity would be best, and I DEFINITELY should not have used table salt. Because I used table salt when I did my first water change, and the population seemed to be holding steady, I got overconfident and thought that table salt would be okay. Stupid. Table salt has some stuff in it that aquarium or pure sea salt does not, like iodine.
Why is the water cloudy like that? Too much salt? I have no idea. But instead of making sure things were okay, I just waited a couple of days and then basically dumped my current tank into the bigger one.
It's been a few days now, and from what I can see in the cloudy water (which isn't much), I have one sea monkey left of the population of 15-20 that was holding steady in the smaller tank.
Sigh. Failure #1.
I am not going to give up, though. The next step is to get brine shrimp eggs and try to hatch them in the new tank, once I do some more research. Now that I have an idea of what sea monkeys are like, I will be able to tell if there are any real differences between them and "regular" brine shrimp.
So, I probably won't be making any posts for a week or two, but the page links should be growing as I find more information about sea monkeys and brine shrimp. After that, it'll be time to get some eggs and try again!
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