Sea Monkeys Rule!

A family of tiny Sea Monkeys were the stars of the show at Bozeman, Montana's Astronomy Day, where the tiny "aliens" helped people learn about astrobiology. 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PRLog (Press Release) – Jun 15, 2010 – A tankful of tiny Sea Monkeys were the stars of the show at an Astronomy Day event held in Bozeman, Montana on April 24. 

The centimeter-long creatures, long the staple of old-school comic book ads, twirled and whirled underwater as kids and adults alike kneeled down for a look. The Sea Monkeys were part of an astrobiology exhibit hosted by Montana State University’s Astrobiology Biogeocatalysis Research Center (ABRC), and the creatures helped spark the conversation about “alien” life. 

“If we find alien life on another planet, they probably won’t look like the little green men in movies. They’re much more likely to look like this!” said MSU Outreach Specialist Jamie Cornish, as she pointed out the Sea Monkeys’ long tails and three eyes. 

Sea Monkeys (which are actually a species of brine shrimp) are hardy creatures that have a long track record in space. Cornish said they have flown on the Space Shuttle Discovery, Space Shuttle Endeavour, the USML-1 Columbia, the Space Shuttle Atlantis and the Mir Space Station. Their eggs were placed outside a space vehicle and exposed to the full radiation of the Sun. Upon returning to earth, the eggs still hatched. 

Cornish told Astronomy Day visitors that astrobiologists at Montana State University study similarly hardy micro-organisms that live in the acidic hot springs of nearby Yellowstone National Park. By knowing more about organisms that thrive in “extreme environments” like Yellowstone’s hot springs, scientists will have a better understanding of what life forms might survive on planets like Mars or moons like Jupiter’s Europa. 

About 1,400 people attended the 2010 Astronomy Day, held at Bozeman’s Museum of the Rockies. Other activities included a presentation by NASA astronaut and native Montanan Loren Acton; dramatic images of the Sun recently released from the Solar Dynamics Observatory; and a touch-screen kiosk from the MESSENGER mission to Mercury. Visitors received outreach materials from the Kepler and SOFIA missions provided by SETI; astrobiology posters and planet cards from NAI Central; and Titan bookmarks and other educational pieces from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. 

ABRC was a major sponsor of the event, along with the Museum of the Rockies, Southwest Montana Astronomical Society, and MSU’s Extended University and Solar Physics Research Group. 

More information about the connection between Yellowstone’s hot springs and “aliens” is posted athttp://abrc.montana.edu

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MSU Extended University is an outreach arm of Montana State University offering continuing education, public outreach programs for youth and adults, and distance learning via Montana State Online.

Don’t call me a brine shrimp.

I am a Sea-Monkey®,

A Sea-Monkey® of love.

I confound scientists

Sprung to life from just a little pouch.

I have three eyes

Because I just can’t get enough of you.

We will make sweet love

Behind the glow-in-the-dark treasure chest

Or not.

I am also asexual.

Don’t call me a brine shrimp.

I am a Sea-Monkey®,

A Sea-Monkey® of love.

Please remember to give me one level spoon

Of specially formulated Sea-Monkey® food

Once each week

And I promise you this:

Hours and hours of fun

Until I die within one to two years.

Or sooner

If you forget to feed me.

I am not a brine shrimp.

Do brine shrimp live in rocket ship homes?

Can brine shrimp perform tricks?

Do brine shrimp bring laughter to children the world over?

Have brine shrimp known love?

I am a giant.

I am a clown.

I am an astronaut.

I am a hunter.

So don’t call me a brine shrimp.

I am a Sea-Monkey®,

Your Sea-Monkey® of love.

[run jen run]

Entries between 1988-2005

We're back again and we've got more of everybody's favorite pet!

July 2 Day 216: My Sea-Monkeys are all huge and seem to be enjoying themselves immensely. They seem to spend most of their day dunking themselves into the yellow gunk at the bottom of the tank (or mating). I've noticed many new baby Sea-Monkeys hatch and grow over the past hundred days and right now a significant portion of the tank population are actually 2nd generation S-M! I hope you're having this much luck and FUN with your batch!

By the way, S-M Rule! has had an amazing 9500 visitors since November last year! Thanks for visiting! Feel free to sign the Guestbook!

Mar 3 Day 95: If you visited S-M Rule! today there's a chance that you were our 3000th visitors! Thanks to everybody who's signed the Guestbook! It's really great to hear from everybody and I look forward to reading more messages.

Feb 17 Day 81: It has almost been 3 months since I started this latest batch of Sea-Monkeys. There are so many and they're all so big! A few of them have paired up recently and are having the time of their lives. Maybe we'll start seeing some 'oodles of joy' (baby S-M) soon. For real pics from a previous batch of Sea-Monkeys swimming and mating, see the Amazing Tank of Artemia.

Jan 18 Day 60: We got our 1000th hit today! Thanks for visiting guys. I hope you're enjoying this web site as much as I am!

2004

Nov 27 Day 8: Awww, they're frolicking in the light. Just swimming around in circles. They're enjoying the Summer heat while I'm sitting here melting away! They thrive in warm temperatures and in the sun so I place them in the sun or under a lamp every now and then to watch them dance around - check out Fact-file: Temperature Control for more.

Nov 25 Day 6: I've just finished feeding my S-M for the very first time. They seem big enough now to be fed from the packet.

Nov 24 Day 5: Watching the tiny fuzzy creatures grow (which is fondly familiar to me) is really fun, especially when I need a break from all the work I have to do. Although it's all very familiar to me, it's great to watch them become so much bigger so quickly - and there are SO many of them! Having them has been so much fun that I've decided to get this site up and running again! Keep an eye out for the new look, the same good ol' fun and checkout the useful information. Oh, by the way, I love it when people email me and give me feedback. It's great to hear what you think of the site! :-)

Nov 20 Day 1 (again): It has been more than two years since I last opened a packet of Instant Life eggs and guess what? It's happening again! I came across a few old packets of feed, eggs and water purifier while cleaning out some storage boxes and thought it would be fun to have a tank of amazing life growing and breeding in my room again. It's Day 1of my latest tank!

2000-2002

March 31, 2002 My latest batch of Sea-Monkeys are currently on their final leg...it's really sad to see the population of an old and very long lasting batch of Sea-Monkeys thin and die away. I still have the same tank from year 2000. It now has 3 fully grown adults which are all male! The algae is thriving at the bottom of the tank - it's good to have this constant source of food but it has totally grown out of control and I think that once again it has been responsible for the decline in the tank population. I've also cut back on how much and how often I've been feeding my S-M to help curb the algae growth. Note that I decided that digging out the algae would be a bad idea, ie for fear of scooping out 'stuff' that should really remain in the tank if you know what I mean!

Jan 1, 2002 Happy new year everybody! My latest batch is more than a year old now (almost older than the last batch I had). This web site will be undergoing many more improvements over the holidays, including the development of a 'Special Links' page, where S-M Rule! will post interesting Sea-Monkey links for visitors to check out.

July-Oct 2001 The site now loads up much faster and is much more easily accessible. Banners linking to Amazing Products were added. New counters added. New headings. Index, Home, Fact-file, the Amazing Tank of Artemia and Amazing Products Store were redesigned. Enhanced html functions esp. with the addition of music, scripts, frames and pop ups.

Jan 15, 2000 All of my S-M have gone...away :-( Some probably have died from old age, but most probably died because of the algae build up in the tank. I've learnt that it's good to have some blue-green algae but if there's too much it'll use up all the oxygen. When there's algae growing it's probably better to extend the feeding interval and let the Sea-Monkeys eat up the green stuff before it causes problems.

Jan 5-15, 2000 With the New Millennium this website has undergone a huge upgrade. One of the main changes awaiting completion will take effect soon, with smaller sized site files which will mean the website will load much faster on your computer.

Jan 8, 2000 This site has had 1071 hits since June 16th, 1999! Thanks for visiting everybody! Come back again soon :-)

1999

Dec 21 It's the first birthday of my first batch of Sea-Monkeys! Over the course of the year, the tank's population has grown tremendously and there have been some really big S-M and plenty of mating going on too. Today, however, with only 7 remaining S-M that have lived for a whole year, celebrations, although small, were still very exciting. One year is a great milestone that every S-M owner should aim to reach. Most will reach it and may even go beyond it!

Nov 26 Today, I went to Toys 'R' Us to buy a few more packets of Sea-Monkeys Growth Food to refill my feed container.

Sept 29 The tank population has recently increased to 19 S-M with the hatching of babies. The Sea-Monkeys are swimming around doing what they usually do. Some baby S-Ms have survived and have grown to adults! :-)

Aug 30 Sadly, with the passing of winter most of my Sea-Monkeys disappeared...gone...died. Most of the babies seem to die before getting much bigger or reaching adulthood. The current population is at about 10 (it's difficult counting them when they're diving in and out of the algae!).

June 16 With heaps and heaps of trouble I was finally able to find and add a hit counter to the homepage. Check out pics and images I've added to the downloads page.

June 5-11 Updated some stuff and added the "Fact-file" to this site. Check it out, it covers pretty much everything that you need to know about our favorite pets!

May 25-26 I began developing this site today. Hopefully, it'll be uploaded and ready for everybody to view on the net by June 11.

May 9-10 I designed a wallpaper for my computer from a bunch of S-M pics and images (you can download it from the Downloads page).

March 25 With nothing better to do, and to avoid forgetting to feed my S-M in the future (!), I created the Sea-Monkeys Feed Days Booklet (download it here) and have started using it. It should last about a year. I can tell I'll make feeding so much more fun and convenient, plus it's much better than writing the dates I need to feed my Sea-Monkeys on a plain sheet of paper that's readily lost.

March 15 The new batch of S-M are now a lot bigger and the eggs produced by the adults from the original bunch are now hatching so there are lots of little Artemia nyos swimming around! Wow, I've really got a little community happening here. The tank's population has grown to approximately 40 S-M's!!

March 1 More babies hatched today! I poured the contents of the original tank, with Sea-Monkeys, and the new water together into the new tank. The S-M didn't mind going for a little spin and readily adapted in the new environment, and were soon frolicking and exploring the new tank.

Feb 28 I added another packet of Instant Life eggs to the new mixture (of Jumbo Living Plasma).

Feb 26 I wrote to Transcience to asked about the order as it's now very late. They're usually not late with orders so my guess is that the package has been lost in the mail. Good on them though, they sent me another packet of Jumbo Living Plasma right away and I received it on the 28th.

Feb 19 Most of my S-M are still alive and have grown to about 1 to 1.3 cm long! Today, I finished the cleaning and all that stuff so the tank looks great and is finally ready to be filled with Sea-Monkey life! One minor problem, though, I'm still waiting to receive the Plasma in the mail.

Jan 29 School started today (yep I'm still in school!) so I didn't get much done besides feeding the Sea-Monkeys. I feed them every six or seven days.

Jan 27 Back to the new tank. After the sealant dried today I started cleaning the glue and excess sealant off the glass. Today, I also sent out an order for "Jumbo Living Plasma" from the Transcience Corporation (they distribute S-M where I live) to make enough purified water to fill the new tank. I'll probably need to wait about three weeks til I receive it in the mail.

Jan 22 One thing I love doing is to sit by the tank and watch the S-M swim around and dive into the algae. There are certainly a lot of Sea-Monkeys in the take today! They're just swimming around in circles in the tank - eating, mating, and eating while they're mating. It's amusing watching them tunnel through the algae. They're always eating!

Jan 19-21 After buying the materials and equipment needed to make the tank I immediately started working on it. As I put it together, I faced some problems, resulting from my inexperience at using some of the equipment. Loads of the glue got stuck on the glass so I'm going to have to spend some time cleaning it before the Sea-Monkeys can move in.

Jan 15-27 I've decided that it's about time I moved my S-M into a larger tank. No average glass container would be appropriate for the big move so I designed a larger, suitably sized tank. It's long, thin and tall to match the original tank and twice as wide!

Jan 14 Looks like the Sea-Monkeys have learnt what their 'extra' body parts are for because they're all mating! As a result there seems to be plenty of eggs but there aren't any babies yet. I thought they might've been eaten by the adult Sea-Monkeys but the Sea-Monkey manual suggests otherwise.

Jan 12 They're still growing but now their appendages seem to be fully grown. The egg sacks on the female S-M, which are attached where the tails meet their body, are red and very prominent. You can actually see individual eggs inside the sacks. Check out Amazing Tank of Artemia to have a closer look.

Jan 6 Woah! They're all gigantic! Most of them are still alive and swimming, and are approx. 9mm long (0.3") :-)

Jan 2 The S-M have grown lots of little furry legs (or are they arms?). They look like paddles which oscillate when they move around.

New Years Day 1999 I added a packet of Plasma II to the tank water. Hopefully this will help most, if not all, of my S-M to live to adulthood and are fully grown. How's that for pre-planning the new year!

1998

Dec 29 I fed my baby S-M today, a bit earlier than recommended, as they're getting bigger everyday! NB. I keep the Sea-Monkeys feed in a photo/film container, and I've stuck the packet on the container. My advice is that you shouldn't be feeding them until approximately 8 days after they hatch, although it really depends on how big your tank's population is - and how hungry they look!

Christmas Day I left the tank under my table lamp to keep my Sea-Monkeys warm. As usual, they swam around in circles excitedly as soon as they were placed under the light. Later today, everyone at the Christmas party had a close look at the Sea-Monkeys but luckily no-one attempt to pick up the container! I spent some time explaining that they weren't little prawns! Happy Christmas (or whichever holiday is applicable)!

Dec 22 Oh! Look at all the 'oodles of joy'! There must be at least 20 or so S-M swimming around and they're all incredibly small - about the size of the full stop at the end of this sentence. I guess some egg batches might take 2, if not 3, rather than the usual 1 day before you start seeing some life.

Dec 21 Could this Instant life packet be a dud? None of the eggs have hatched! Hmm, I'll have to wait until tomorrow to see what happens.

Dec 20 Today's a wonderful day, the purified water I prepared earlier is ready and I've emptied a whole packet of S-M eggs into the tank. Now I'm waiting for them to hatch.