Brine Shrimp

What are brine shrimp?• Brine shrimp are small crustaceans.

Sometimes they are called “sea monkeys”, but they don’t live in the sea and they aren’t monkeys!

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Where do they live?• They live in inland seas, salt flats and

evaporating salt ponds; they don’t live in the ocean.

• They are found throughout the world, in places such as the Great Salt Lake in Utah.

Great Salt Lake, UtahSalt Pond in Northern California

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Why are they important?

• Brine shrimp are food for a number of animals, such as flamingos. Many people feed brine shrimp to fish in aquariums.

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What is their life like?

• Brine shrimp grow from eggs to larvae to adults.

• When the water in their ponds evaporates, brine shrimp adults produce cyst-like eggs.

• The eggs can lie dormant in the dried-up pond for up to 13 years!

• Dried-out eggs will hatch when rain falls. Dried up salt dissolves in the water, creating saltwater and a place for the eggs to hatch.

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When the rains come back, the cysts will hatch.

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“Sea Monkeys!”

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