USB Sea Monkeys

Intro: 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!

STEP 2: The Base Platform

I got a cheap USB coffee warmer from ebay. This one  both plugs into a USB port on the computer and it has a USB 'out' port on the back.

Sea Monkeys like to be warm, but a coffee warmer gets a bit too hot!

So....(go to the next step, silly)....

STEP 3: No Sea Monkey Soup for Me, Please

Yes the coffee warmer will get to darn hot. So I fooled around with a thermometer and several options for having it warm the water with out cooking the contents. I came up with this ingenious little spacer that really works well.

You can mess around with a thermometer yourself and other ways of cooling the base down a bit.  You want the water to be 80-100 degrees F. Hot little monkeys!

Seriously, just pop a few K'nex together and you're good to go.

STEP 4: Platform Base With Spacer

This spacer was just a little bit too big to fit snuggly. I had to shave the ends of the white rods down a bit to get a good fit. I used a small hand file for a while, but I got bored. The dremel was much more fun!

STEP 5: Let There Be Light!

I got a small adjustable, goose neck, LED, USB light form ebay cheap, cheap. Not much to say about this step...see the picture...

STEP 6: Assembly

Ok, here's the hard stuff! 

1) Put the base on the desk.
2) Place the spacer on the base.
3) Plug the light into the back of the base.
4) Plug the base into the computer.

Now take a break, sit down, relax, pacer yourself, you're doing fine.

Fred! quit playing dead, you are freaking me out.

STEP 7: Lets Get Cooking

OK, now place the water bottle on the spacer and let it warm up for a day or longer. Remember, you want the water to be up there around 80-100 degrees F for a good hatch.

STEP 8: The Sea Monkey Eggs

I got the Sea Monkey eggs from: http://www.arizonafairyshrimp.com/index.html  though you can get them from many sources. You are looking for fresh water fairy shrimp. They are also found on ebay (is there any thing you can't find on ebay?)

STEP 9: Hatching the Babies

1) Read the information that comes with the eggs. 
2) A small amount is more then enough for this little container.
3) The light is good, but you will get a better hatch with direct sunlight that first day or two.
4) Water temp, again should be 80-100 degrees F.

STEP 10: Feed Me Seymour!

Feeding these twisted little monkeys is an easy task.
Get a little pack of yeast in the baking isle at the grocery store.
Don't worry about refrigerating it or any of that jazz, just keep it clean and dry

STEP 11: Go Easy on the Feedings!

Use very very little of the food! You can fowl the water quickly with too much of a good thing.
Give then 6-7 grains of the yeast every other day. That really is enough!

STEP 12: Final Note

*You will likely have less survive then hatch, it happens.
* The extra eggs you have will last darn near forever if you just keep them dry.
*The survivors will live 3-4 months and get up to a 1/2 inch long.
*Green algae growth can be good natural food, let it grow.
*Sunlight can make this small amount of water vary in temperature widely, you may want to get them monkeys out of sunlight after the first day or two of hatching. Sunlight is not absolutely required for hatching anyway, I keep my out of sunlight all together and do just fine.
*Mine is plugged into a computer that never gets 'turned off' fully so the USB post is always energized, the heater and light are always on. Life is good.
* http://www.arizonafairyshrimp.com/index.html this link has lots of good information on the care and feeding of Sea Monkeys, give it a look, see. This is were I get my eggs too.
*My Sea Monkeys are too small and my camera too pitiful to get a decent picture. This is a really close-up picture that I snagged from the website link above.
*Have fun, you sick little monkey!

Comments

[AluminumFoilMaster]

Damn all you guys have terrible parents.

[sle4]

were do we buy

[spenfisher12]

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

[seanthesheep101]

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.

[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...

[imthatguy1125]

Same here

[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