Live Sea Monkeys?

[djb]

hi UF,
I bought my children this thing called "grow your own live Sea Monkeys" . . for christmas

the thing is that thay have been growing now since christmas and are very large indeed (lots of them to),

Would these be any good to use as food for other fish?

I'm just wondering as they are easy and cheap to produce

Any idea's?

[MrFish]

Hi and welcome, you would be better of posting on the reefs forum but to answer the question, Sea monkeys are just a marketing name for modified Brine Shrimp so they are good fish food.

You say they are large, how large, when ever I have treid to grow Brine Shrimp they don't last more than a few days? never grown one of the sea monkey kits though.

[Andrew N]

From the Seamonkey worship page (http://www.seamonkeyworship.com/):

don't eat them - you may enjoy the momentary taste but you certainly won' t have the fun of watching your Sea-Monkeys® grow;

do involve your Sea-Monkeys® in political discussion - despite the fact that most Sea-Monkeys® lean to the left

do cover the Sea-Monkey® tank while engaged in marital relations as Sea-Monkeys® carry camcorders and aren't afraid to sell those tapes

Seriously though,

von Braunhut first came across the animal known as Artema nyos (a close relative of the brine shrimp) in 1957. He noticed that a number of the shrimp appeared dead for weeks, mysteriously came back to life when introduced to water. Seeming to defy the laws of nature, the Artema nyos actually found a protective cyst which enabled them to survive for great periods of time when their aquatic habitats dried up. A protective compound which binds to their cell protein acts as a protective shield within within which they seem to exist in a state of suspended animation. In this cyst stage, they use no energy and thus appear dead to the world. When reintroduced to water, however, they seemed to spring back to life without having suffered any kind of problem.

So dont quote me on it, but I think they might be good fish food. Dont forget though that Brine shrimp have very little nutrition on their own.

Bring on the monkeys...

[djb]

hi, at first i thought they wasnt going to grow 1 week went by and then i forgot about them, about a week later i was going to throw the water away when i noticed loads of swimi things (sea monkeys),
I top the water level back up and they are here to this day, they are at least 5mm long, I dont know if they the will reproduce,
I'm of to the £ shop first thing in the morning for more!
cheers

[skip]

i have seen these b4 and think they are triops not brine shrip

[djb]

are they any good for food then?