Sea Monkeys: adolescents
The sea monkeys are continuing to grow. I noticed that all the food that I had put in two days ago seemed to be gone completely, meaning that they had eaten it all and were probably hungry. So I put my second scoop of Growth Food in the tank and the shrimp started swimming around faster to snag it.
According to the Artemia FAQ the nauplii are in their adolescent stage from day 8-14, during which they molt their shells up to 17 times before reaching adulthood. Unfortunately adulthood lasts only 4-5 weeks. I tried doing a rough count of how many sea monkeys I could see in the jar, and my best estimate would be between 30 and 50. I also noticed that while some are big and swimming fastest to eat the food, there are some shrimp that are still really small! I don't know if they hatched late or just are slow growers or what. But it looks like those ones may not make it if they can't catch up. They are seriously like half to 1/3 the size of the biggest sea monkeys.
I am happy to see that my mixture of sea salt and water seems to be working just fine for the sea monkeys. Looking forward to seeing them grow more and hopefully taking more and better pictures.
Life Cycle of the Artemia Salina
According to the Artemia FAQ the nauplii are in their adolescent stage from day 8-14, during which they molt their shells up to 17 times before reaching adulthood. Unfortunately adulthood lasts only 4-5 weeks. I tried doing a rough count of how many sea monkeys I could see in the jar, and my best estimate would be between 30 and 50. I also noticed that while some are big and swimming fastest to eat the food, there are some shrimp that are still really small! I don't know if they hatched late or just are slow growers or what. But it looks like those ones may not make it if they can't catch up. They are seriously like half to 1/3 the size of the biggest sea monkeys.
I am happy to see that my mixture of sea salt and water seems to be working just fine for the sea monkeys. Looking forward to seeing them grow more and hopefully taking more and better pictures.
Life Cycle of the Artemia Salina
