Someone at work gave me the Sea Monkeys kit about ten years ago while I was recovering from surgery. It seemed like a fun way to take my mind off things but at the time I didn’t have a place to put it and my brain was too foggy to focus so I put it away. This spring seemed like a good time to finally pull it out, though I didn’t know how viable the brine shrimp would be.
I let it sit for two days after adding the water conditioner and stirring. Adding the brine shrimp eggs was the second step.
After a week or so it was obvious there wouldn’t be any hatching. Brine shrimp are notoriously tough little critters which is what makes them so popular for home science kits but in this case there’d just been too much time, too many temperature changes. But there’s already a thin layer of algae growing in the bottom of the tank and I’m going to leave it to see what does develop.
For a long time I’ve been interested in the story of Anna Thynne (b.1806, d.1866). Like a lot of women in science she doesn’t get the credit she deserves but she created, almost by accident, the first sustained home marine aquarium. While visiting Torquay with her family she found some corals called Madrepores and took them home to London. Her husband was Sub-Dean of Westminster Abbey. She kept her corals in a glass bowl and aerated the water by hand to keep them alive, and also had regular shipments of fresh seawater delivered. When she added plants and some other animals she realized she’d created a more or less self-sustaining ecosystem. She’d write a scientific paper about the reproductive habits of Madrepores and her discovery inspired the creation of the Fish House at the London Zoo, predecessor of the London Aquarium.
She kept her Madrepores alive for three years and took them with her to Wales where she released them back to the sea. Her research is a reminder that life is cyclical, adaptable, and persistent.
As a child, I wanted Sea Monkeys so badly. Do you remember the comic book ads that showed them in their castle, wearing crown, kind of like Dr. Seuss characters? Then when Kate was little, we got her a kit. It was so disappointing—no crowns, sceptres, happy smiles—just a bunch of wiggly shrimp!
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I love the ecosystem you create here, Chris.