Question: Sea-Monkies for food?

GazerOfStars

GazerOfStars

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When I was younger I always loved having Sea-Monkies for pets. They were easy to take care of, fun to observe, and heck - you only had to add water to bring them into the world!

I've read a great deal about the types of food that Axies like to eat and Brine shrimp is mentioned quite regularly. Now, I know Sea-Monkies are an altered version of a brine shrimp and might be kept in different conditions then wild Brine shrimp, so that is why I'm here to ask :D:

Would it be safe to drop some Sea-Monkies(yes, that brand) into my tank?

I'm uncertain because I know when you first start raising your sea-monkies you put a sort of conditioning powder( could have salt in it?) into their little tank along with bottled water. You then procede to feed them with this green/Algae like powder for the rest of their life.

Would any of these factors be a harm to my Axies? Or has anyone successfully fed Sea-Monkies to them before?

I ask this rather then learn how to start a Brine shrimp farm because I kind of want to be nostalgic and doubly raise some nice treats for my Axolots :)
 
Sea Monkies are patented brine shrimp. The cysts will not do anything if you drop them in the tank. The water conditioner packet is a mix of dry sodium thiosulfate and sodium clhoride. (de-chlorinator and salt)

Better to buy bulk brine shrimp and save some serious money given the expense of the brand name pet version.
 
Also baby brine shrimp only keep there nutrition for a max of 24 hour after hatching, so you would need to be hatching so many sea moneys every day to feed them, not only would it be ridiculously expensive, but also very impractical. So much better go for with baby brine shrimp, especially if you have a large number of baby's to feed, as they hatch a lot faster and cost a lot less.
 
All great advice. I might have to look into setting up a brine shrimp hatchery. But, the bottom line that I'm asking is: would it be safe to feed them Sea-Monkies? My top concern is their salt content. I'd hate to kill my Axies over something stupid like this.

I don't intend for them to be a food staple. I have an adequate supply of frozen bloods worms. But I kind of wanted to get the little tank of Sea-Monkies, and if they over populate I was wondering if they would be an alright treat for my Lotls.
 
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You should keep them in a separate container since they require salt in the water and can then drop them into the axolotl tank for a snack once they hatch out. They wont last long in a freshwater tank, and wont hatch out in it. Adding enough salt to the axie tank for the sea monkies would be extremely detrimental to your axolotls I imagine.
 
GazerOfStars said:
All great advice. I might have to look into setting up a brine shrimp hatchery. But, the bottom line that I'm asking is: would it be safe to feed them Sea-Monkies? My top concern is their salt content. I'd hate to kill my Axies over something stupid like this.

I don't intend for them to be a food staple. I have an adequate supply of frozen bloods worms. But I kind of wanted to get the little tank of Sea-Monkies, and if they over populate I was wondering if they would be an alright treat for my Lotls.
Click to expand...

Yes, you would just use a fine mesh net and filter the brine shrimp out of the water, rinse and feed them out. Keep in mind that the water in which your axolotl lives is very dilute compared to the water in the brine shrimp so this is going to remove any issues with the salt.

Unless you have small axolotls, your going to have to raise the brine shrimp up to adult size which can take awhile and the return on the time is small. It is typically better to purchase adult brine shrimp, feed them for 24 hours and then feed them out to the axolotls. There are a lot of products out there that can be used to bump up the nutrition of the brine shrimp but if it is only a rare feeding, it isn't important to bump it up (think about it this way, eating a marshmellow on occasion isn't going to hurt you but if you eat them all the time, it is a problem).

Some comments,

Ed
 
iSuzie said:
Also baby brine shrimp only keep there nutrition for a max of 24 hour after hatching, so you would need to be hatching so many sea moneys every day to feed them, not only would it be ridiculously expensive, but also very impractical. So much better go for with baby brine shrimp, especially if you have a large number of baby's to feed, as they hatch a lot faster and cost a lot less.
Click to expand...

This is temperature dependent. If you move the hatched brine shrimp into clean water and store them in the refrigerator the nutritional quality lasts longer. The shrimp are typically good as a food source as long as they are still orange-pink with yolk.

Ed
 
Sounds great ^.^ Thanks for all the excellent advice, Suzie, Ed, Johnny,
and everyone.

@Fraust. Of course, I never intended to raise the brine shrimp/ Sea-Monkies in my Lotl tank.

I'll probably peruse the forums a bit and look up good methods to start up a brine shrimp farm( If the whole sea monkey thing doesn't work out)

One last question, when you start a hatchery are those brine shrimp raised in a salty solution too?
 
Brine Shrimp are in salwater through their entire life cycle. Brine shrimp are only good for the first few weeks of life then you should raise Daphia if you are looking for something similar.. They inhabit fresh water and are much easier to raise than Brine shrimp are to adulthood. One starter culture of 500 could be 5000 in 30 days. Which would be past the brine shrimp eating phase of growing axies. These are Russian Red Daphnia tht I raise. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsO2g_vQu9g
 
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Sea monkies are Artemia nyos (nyos standing for New York Ocean Science).

They're a separate species and slightly bigger than Artemia salina, which I believe is the common or garden brine shrimp used to feed fish.

Your not supposed to feed A.nyos to fish because they get tangled in the gill structure.
Not a problem with axies because there's are external.
but A.salina is probably available cheaper than A.nyos.
 
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