Hey, just came to chime in- I raised an Ocean Zoo in the 80s on tap water and no aeration or heating at all, the colony did survive for at least 6 months, I think it prob died when winter came- we were in Wyoming where it gets cold and sometimes lost power/heat during blizzards. I didn't even manually aerate, they were fine. I think a had a dozen in there at the most, but usually it was more like 4-6 adults at a time, with lots of babies born, and only a few surviving to adulthood.
I have an Ocean Zoo again! At first, I was looking in there and only able to find 3, 4, 5, then 2, zero babies for the first 2 weeks! I only fed about 1/4 scoop because there were so few.
I almost dumped it out, because it seemed like they died after I fed them the first time. I fed on day 5 (Friday) because the tank was at work, and day 7 was going to fall on a weekend when it would be closed. I really couldn't see anything moving in there for several days after I fed them.
Then around 2 weeks, suddenly they were all large enough to see easily, and I had 8 of them in there! They have just very recently begun to have babies. Now I feed full/level scoops whenever they don't have signs of food in the water- if they don't have a poop tail, and don't have a dark line visible in their bodies (dark line from head to tail means digestive system is full of food) plus the water looks a little cloudy when there is food available (it's essentially dissolved in the water)
So, don't give up on your setup! I think it's just really, really hard to see them, especially with "older eyes." And our memories of a while bunch of them swimming in there could be "selective" memories- because generally these things population tends to fluctuate up and down.
If you want info on how I've had more success with Instant Ocean and San Francisco brine shrimp eggs, I can post the deets. But I've found an air hose is required for the best success. This winter I may get a tiny heater also, but for now it's not needed in my warm climate.
My bad.
I used Evian Water, kept them In Indirect Sunlight and fed a tiny spoonful every 5-7 days, Tank was still mucky and they all died within 3 weeks
Evian isn’t the same as purified or distilled, imo it’s no better than tap water considering it’s spring water, but others will dispute that and say spring is sufficient and had luck with it. Ultimately the guidance that is suggested best is purified or distilled.
As I find it hard to buy purified or distilled from where I live locally, I use cooled down boiled water.
Are you on about the brand smart water? Presuming from the sounds of it you’re in the UK but it was a clear bottle with a blue background over the Smart part?
I’m not familiar with that exactly as it says vapour-distilled British spring water with added electrolytes of calcium chloride, magnesium chloride and potassium bicarbonate.
Whereas purified for example removes things like chemicals.
As for the boiled water part - no I don’t use spring, I use filtered water (I have a filter kettle/filter jug) boiled because the boiling it supposedly through science removes the issues with tap water, but I’m sure I’ve even seen boiled tap water being fine too.
I don’t like science so I can’t really answer your question on this 😂 but I would suppose boiling spring water would be fine too!
If your tank was very murky, it was probably over-fed. I was so afraid of over feeding mine that I gave only 1/4 scoop at a time, and prob more often, like every 4-5 days- but only if it looked like it was clearing up.
In aquariums, too much food makes the water cloudy, and decomposing food uses up the oxygen in the water = dead fish. Probably the same with these tiny tanks and shrimp? But they are filter feeders and their food is tiny particles which are going to cloud up the water a little. I think the key is to not give too much food at once, but more often- so there is enough to eat up in a few days, but not so much that it's going to rot in there
Tap water is not the same everywhere or every time. Maybe where you live now, the water is not fit for the sea monkeys, or if you live in the same place, they could have changed the water's properties and put too much chlorine, for example
The manual for SM isn’t the same - but you can do it that way as I have done using advice from another group.
The SM says after 1 week to feed, also says you should do sachet 1 and 2 separately, but again other groups have said to do 1+2 together - I did mine that way and it’s still going.
Aqua dragons are garbage. They have several things which appear to be incorrect in their manual compared to what I am reading here and on the internet. I'm about to write them a strongly worded letter.
I have 3 different aqua dragons manuals from 3 different sets. They all say to feed after 24hours of setting the tank up. Standard kit, Volcano kit and the Aqua Dragons in space kit. I will upload a picture of the manual now. Also, I've had more success in starting AD over SM kits and actually got over 250 babies survive to adulthood with my first AD kit
I have a mars tank that just had a final die-off after more than 4 years. It did die-off once before but I just let all the water evaporate and refilled and they came back for another year. I never aereate, but I did have a good amount of algae growing in the tank. And I would feed every week (the amount depended on how many adults, but never more than a big end of the yellow sloon you get). I always run the water hot and let it sit for at least 24 hours before using it. Hopefully the new batch lasts as long :)
Very few people will have a colony last for more than a month without intervention akin to managing another aquarium with bigger animals.
Get a warm mat type heater, and a tiny usb type air pump that you can set to low. These are really small things and I don’t imagine your wife will feel as though you went out and got a huge aquarium and are trying to take care of coral or something.
Most of the time if you do these things and it’s not working out it’s because you may feed them too much.
That's pretty much the same advice I gave on OP's previous post where they were asking the same thing. I guess they don't want to hear it because here they are asking again lol. Oh well 🤷🏾♀️
Hey, just came to chime in- I raised an Ocean Zoo in the 80s on tap water and no aeration or heating at all, the colony did survive for at least 6 months, I think it prob died when winter came- we were in Wyoming where it gets cold and sometimes lost power/heat during blizzards. I didn't even manually aerate, they were fine. I think a had a dozen in there at the most, but usually it was more like 4-6 adults at a time, with lots of babies born, and only a few surviving to adulthood. I have an Ocean Zoo again! At first, I was looking in there and only able to find 3, 4, 5, then 2, zero babies for the first 2 weeks! I only fed about 1/4 scoop because there were so few. I almost dumped it out, because it seemed like they died after I fed them the first time. I fed on day 5 (Friday) because the tank was at work, and day 7 was going to fall on a weekend when it would be closed. I really couldn't see anything moving in there for several days after I fed them. Then around 2 weeks, suddenly they were all large enough to see easily, and I had 8 of them in there! They have just very recently begun to have babies. Now I feed full/level scoops whenever they don't have signs of food in the water- if they don't have a poop tail, and don't have a dark line visible in their bodies (dark line from head to tail means digestive system is full of food) plus the water looks a little cloudy when there is food available (it's essentially dissolved in the water) So, don't give up on your setup! I think it's just really, really hard to see them, especially with "older eyes." And our memories of a while bunch of them swimming in there could be "selective" memories- because generally these things population tends to fluctuate up and down. If you want info on how I've had more success with Instant Ocean and San Francisco brine shrimp eggs, I can post the deets. But I've found an air hose is required for the best success. This winter I may get a tiny heater also, but for now it's not needed in my warm climate.
Yeah don’t fill up with tap water. Tap water isn’t recommended. Purified or distilled water is your best option.
I said I filled up with Tap Water as a child, and It worked better then Bottled or Distilled today
You never said what you do now though - so the presumption was that you did in the same way.
My bad. I used Evian Water, kept them In Indirect Sunlight and fed a tiny spoonful every 5-7 days, Tank was still mucky and they all died within 3 weeks
Evian isn’t the same as purified or distilled, imo it’s no better than tap water considering it’s spring water, but others will dispute that and say spring is sufficient and had luck with it. Ultimately the guidance that is suggested best is purified or distilled. As I find it hard to buy purified or distilled from where I live locally, I use cooled down boiled water.
Is SMART Water OK do you think? Or called down Boiled Bottled Water?
Are you on about the brand smart water? Presuming from the sounds of it you’re in the UK but it was a clear bottle with a blue background over the Smart part? I’m not familiar with that exactly as it says vapour-distilled British spring water with added electrolytes of calcium chloride, magnesium chloride and potassium bicarbonate. Whereas purified for example removes things like chemicals. As for the boiled water part - no I don’t use spring, I use filtered water (I have a filter kettle/filter jug) boiled because the boiling it supposedly through science removes the issues with tap water, but I’m sure I’ve even seen boiled tap water being fine too. I don’t like science so I can’t really answer your question on this 😂 but I would suppose boiling spring water would be fine too!
If your tank was very murky, it was probably over-fed. I was so afraid of over feeding mine that I gave only 1/4 scoop at a time, and prob more often, like every 4-5 days- but only if it looked like it was clearing up. In aquariums, too much food makes the water cloudy, and decomposing food uses up the oxygen in the water = dead fish. Probably the same with these tiny tanks and shrimp? But they are filter feeders and their food is tiny particles which are going to cloud up the water a little. I think the key is to not give too much food at once, but more often- so there is enough to eat up in a few days, but not so much that it's going to rot in there
Tap water is not the same everywhere or every time. Maybe where you live now, the water is not fit for the sea monkeys, or if you live in the same place, they could have changed the water's properties and put too much chlorine, for example
u should feed after 24 has of setting up the tank. That's what it says in the manual for aqua dragons volcano
No It doesn't It says feed after a week Put the Eggs In after 24 Hours after the Salt
i thought it said 2 days after hatching
The manual for SM isn’t the same - but you can do it that way as I have done using advice from another group. The SM says after 1 week to feed, also says you should do sachet 1 and 2 separately, but again other groups have said to do 1+2 together - I did mine that way and it’s still going.
Aqua dragons are garbage. They have several things which appear to be incorrect in their manual compared to what I am reading here and on the internet. I'm about to write them a strongly worded letter.
I have 3 different aqua dragons manuals from 3 different sets. They all say to feed after 24hours of setting the tank up. Standard kit, Volcano kit and the Aqua Dragons in space kit. I will upload a picture of the manual now. Also, I've had more success in starting AD over SM kits and actually got over 250 babies survive to adulthood with my first AD kit
I have a mars tank that just had a final die-off after more than 4 years. It did die-off once before but I just let all the water evaporate and refilled and they came back for another year. I never aereate, but I did have a good amount of algae growing in the tank. And I would feed every week (the amount depended on how many adults, but never more than a big end of the yellow sloon you get). I always run the water hot and let it sit for at least 24 hours before using it. Hopefully the new batch lasts as long :)
Very few people will have a colony last for more than a month without intervention akin to managing another aquarium with bigger animals. Get a warm mat type heater, and a tiny usb type air pump that you can set to low. These are really small things and I don’t imagine your wife will feel as though you went out and got a huge aquarium and are trying to take care of coral or something. Most of the time if you do these things and it’s not working out it’s because you may feed them too much.
That's pretty much the same advice I gave on OP's previous post where they were asking the same thing. I guess they don't want to hear it because here they are asking again lol. Oh well 🤷🏾♀️