I'm hoping some of these images will help to illustrate the physical differences between male and female sea monkeys. The males have the large pincers ("whiskers") and somewhat longer tales than the females.
Female
As I was taking pictures I noticed that some of the males would dip down to the bottom of the tank and scoop up a tiny bit of debris, then sort through it (apparently for food), as they swam back toward the top.
Male with an odd black spot
Male playing with debris
This is a male looking out of the jar near an odd contour of the glass.
Another picture of a Male with that black spot.
Female with a blurry male in the background
I'm thinking if he has to be named, then "spot", while terribly common for dogs, might be appropriate.
Another picture showing the "whiskers" on the males.
And this provided the illumination from the side to keep the glare off the glass.
I utilized my Nikon D200 and Nikon 60mm macro. The sea monkeys have reached the size where the Sigma 150mm macro is just too much lens for anything moving so quickly. Lighting was a combination of the on-camera flash, diffused with a piece of tissue, and an off-camera flash triggered simultaneously through the camera's wireless commander unit.
COMMENTS
These are by far the best pictures of sea monkeys I've ever seen.
They actually look kind of cute... And not just like food...
The male is quite handsome... Better be careful, Joli might form a crush.
Awww, what a proud daddy you are :) Cool pics....
About five of them are now large enough that I can tell the difference between the males and the females. There are two that look like they must have hatched out in the last day or two.
Oh!
The males have pincers, sometimes called "whiskers" and the females don't.
Why? Where were you looking?
COMMENTS
Hahahaha :) YAY Mario & Guido!
They have pincers.
Rugged...manly.
Mario...Guido.
Now we need cool names for the girls....
Uhm... like, "Mergatrude"?
Mabel of course, there just has to be a mabel.
I decided to take a picture of the whole jar to help with the scale of the sea monkeys at their current size.
The AA battery in the lower left corner should also help with determining scale.
I've circled several sea monkeys in red. My best count suggests there are between 8 and 10 sea monkeys, though several are too small to be seen in the photo.
I believe this is day-8.
Hopefully, there will be other sea monkey pictures soon in another journal. We'll see.
COMMENTS
Now you can name them :)
If you end up naming them..please name one Guido. You don't even have to know which one it is...but Guido is a good solid sea monkey name. Dub it Guido and it is guaranteed to stay alive because of a bad ass name like that.
I have to disagree- Mario is by far a better choice, almost "fabio" but with a Mar to really kick ass. Hey if use both Mario and Guido then you can have a monkey mob! :D
You think those are good names for something with 3-eyes that swims with its legs sticking up, breeds either sexually or asexually and tends to need somewhat stronger sphincter muscles?
We need to toughen them up. Mobster monkeys!
With names like Guido and Mario? Hell. Yes.
Well, it has been a few days and the sea monkeys seem to be more stable in their numbers. So perhaps it's time to catch up on their development.
If you're not sure you want to know what the long tail is, don't ask.
It seems they prefer to swim in this up-side-down arrangement..
Hard to believe these are the good shots out of 66 photos and about an hour with the camera. They're still pretty small, never stop moving, and the "tank" is a round jar. It's a macro challenge beyond my ability.
More of a top-down angle.
This is nearly full-size. That is to say, the photo is almost full size. The sea monkey depicted is a bit under 3mm long.
Same photo as above but resized.
Take a good look at the head. Can you see the three black eyes? That's one way to tell it's still just a baby. As it gets older it will lose that middle eye. (And no, it doesn't get a BB-gun for Christmas.)
When do they start to look like monkeys? They don't. It's a silly name. They're a special breed of brine shrimp. But they do swim around as though they're constantly playful. You should see them on feeding day!
I'm still hoping they'll lose the "tails" soon.
COMMENTS
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captainglobehead
13:58 Dec 17 2008
Please tell me you printed yourself a Nobel.
I'm not denying your ability of earning one on your own merits, but I have to admit that would put me in even greater awe of you.
Sinora
14:28 Dec 17 2008
lol
Xzavier
14:41 Dec 17 2008
I would have thought you'd at least have an eye for sarcasm.
What proof would you like? Passive aggressiveness doesn't become anyone.
Beastt17
17:53 Dec 17 2008
Rest at ease, Captianglobehead. I didn't even go that far. In reality these are three drawings I did. I simply replaced what's in the frame using Photoshop.
And for anyone who might care, while passive-aggressive methods might not seem overly becoming, there are worse things people do which put them in corners from which they can't escape. They should probably take the "out" when the opportunity is offered. :-)
STABB666
20:36 Dec 20 2008
I think you should at least get a certificate for your photoshop skills...