USB Sea Monkeys

Add a living feature to your desk, USB Sea Monkeys! Follow the step-by-step instructable and you to can be the talk of the office. This little project is quick, easy, and cheap. Please ignore the little fish bowl in the background. Fred there is just an innocent by-stander.

Step 1: The elixir of life (water)

Retail bottled water gives you both the container and the water. I chose this bottle simply for its cool shape and labeling. Any bottled 'spring' water will do. You should avoid the distilled water as it is a bit too clean to sustain your monkeys. Dirty little monkeys!

Again, please ignore Fred in the fish bowl back behind there. He was sort of jealous and wanted in on at least a few pictures. Sit, Fred, sit!

Comments

[sle4]

were do we buy

[spenfisher12]

not much to say yet i still find a way to post a comment

[mitch and sean]

Lol

[yoyology]

I'm still mourning the Sea Monkeys my grandmother flushed down the toilet when I was a kid. Perhaps I can heal my broken soul by following your Instructable. Thank you for this chance at renewal, Heef. You are truly a messenger of good.

[Jumbo Ninja]

I know the feeling my mom knocked of my sea monkey tank ... gone forever .... and she wouldnt buy me a new one >.>

[predatory meatball]

i used to have tryops (about the same thing, except theyre more orange and look like tiny horseshoe crabs), and my mom flushed the three that survived by day 4... never did get new ones :[

[TOCO]

My 7th grade science teacher had those. I ended up getting some. I didnt use all of the eggs at once. I ended up doing it two times. They didnt last long. I was going to give my science teacher the rest of the eggs but he bought a pac-man frog for the tank after the triops died. I looked at this ible when it was extremely popular. I went to the basement to look for my extra sea monkey eggs but I only had triops eggs. Those wont fit in a water bottle. Last time I had to use a fish tank warmer to get the water warm enough for the triops.

[predatory meatball]

cant realy get more win than a pac man frog... what is it anyway?

[TOCO]

It is just a big frog that we feed mice.

[imthatguy1125]

Same here

[yoyology]

Maybe we should start a support group.

[sk8r4life]

my younger brother thought you were supposed to put soap in it to help them get clean >.>

[Madrigorne]

There there, its all right. (pat pat) I'm sure your sea monkeys knew you cared. It's not your fault. There there...

[imBobertRobert]

i dont see fred... you might want to check to see if he's floating... or maybe my sights gone bad

[Dr.Squirrel]

Just saying... You do know that "Sea-Monkeys" name is restricted to the something NYOS or Sea-Monkey products.... Don't kill me...

[predatory meatball]

you could cut out the same shape in rubber... thats what i used instead of knex

[Bosun Rick]

How about a rubber seal from a canning (Ball or Mason) jar? Maybe gaskets for garden hoses? You might also be able to get hose gaskets from your local Fire Dept.

[predatory meatball]

hmm... never tried it, but i dont see why it wouldnt work... just make sure it doesent melt, i guess

[SasquatchKid]

You cant buy nukes on ebay

[spenfisher12]

you can get nukes but not the bomb

[SasquatchKid]

wow

[spenfisher12]

srsly serch nuke on ebay

[SasquatchKid]

HAHAHA frisbeys

[Capfl2k5]

yet. lol

[Screamo]

Sea monkeys hate me, I always accidentaly kill them Spill something in it, smash the bowl u know what i mean right?:D

[Javin007]

5 stars (and I'm VERY picky about what I give five stars). I am very literally going out today to find the parts to make this. Unfortunately, I can't bring a camera in to work to show it in action, but I'll definitely be making it.

[Javin007]

Oh my Jesus you can really find this stuff for cheap on E-Bay. The light cost me $2 (shipping included) and the warmer cost $3.

[Javin007]

I ended up opting for a single ghost shrimp instead of the sea monkeys, and have put some plants in the water with him to see how he'll fare. This was almost two months ago, and I haven't had to feed him or anything yet, and he's still as happy as a clam! Great 'ible!

[jamster545]

lol, that reminded me of Monty Python (Not Dead Fred "I'm not dead yet.") haha

[predatory meatball]

monty python lolololololololololololololololololololololololololololololol...

[jamster545]

indeed.

[Redgerr]

my only complaint is that the fuji sticker should be taken off, otherwise this is awsome! the sea monkeys live a good life as they should :) hope its plugged into a laptop or somthing because of power outages :o

[puppetmaker77]

I loved the Little Shop of Horrors reference!

[GiL42]

You could add a resistor to the coffee warmer circuits and control the temperature depending on it's resistance.

[bytehead]

Nice. I've had sea monkeys before, but I always only managed to get one to actually get full grown. I like this. And I never saw what the food was., Never knew about the warm part either. I need to do this. My attempts at trying to keep a betta on my desk were always thwarted by my cats, one in particular. The only way that one of them would make sense would be by gluing the tank to the desk so he couldn't knock it over/off. I'm assuming that there's still enough oxygen in the water even after the lid has been kept on for awhile? Getting some algae to grow would help, I'm sure. I might still be tempted to throw a small piece of anachris in, just to help. Keeping the lid on would be good in my case, considering the cats

[xenor]

The reason you can keep a betta in such a small tank is that they have an unusual addition called a labyrinth organ that allows them to extract oxygen from the atmosphere as well as from the water as normal fish do.

[bytehead]

Yep. I've also found out that room temperature is still a bit low for them. And I usually had a bit of anachris or hornwort with them. It goes back to when I was a kid living on a lake, with my jars of lake water and algae, raising cyclops ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclops_%28genus%29 ) and water fleas ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daphnia ) and even the occasional hydra.

[Klappstuhl]

A glass bottle might be a better idea, as the chemical Bisphenol A inside the plastic is released when in contact with water, killing off the sea monkeys slowly over time.

[xnifx]

My fish's name is Fred, too!! In fact, every Betta fish since I was a child was named Fred, all except for one who was named Barney. My fish now is called "Fred Fabio." Just because he is probably the prettiest Fred I've ever had. Thanks for the Sea Monkeys thing. I might give this a shot. But only when Fred's not around. He gets jealous too.

[pacowarabi]

Great 'Ible! You have a knack for writing, and this is a brilliantly simple method. Excellent use of everyday materials and easy-to-find extras. You obviously know your sea monkeys! I knew that they were just brine shrimp, but I had no idea about using yeast as food. Makes me want to go grow some!