Need Help With Fairy Shrimp?

  • Need Help With Fairy Shrimp?

Need Help With Fairy Shrimp?

On this page, you will find detailed instructions for successfully growing fairy shrimp in your classroom. These are the same instructions found in Appendix E of your Teacher's Manual.

If you would like us to mail you a packet of fairy shrimp eggs, please fill out this form.

If you have any questions or problems, please contact our Critter Keeper and Resident Fairy Shrimp Raiser, Lu-Anne Spencer-Hartle.

Request Fairy Shrimp Eggs

If you are a teacher participating in the Splash Elementary Program, please fill out this form to request a packet of fairy shrimp eggs.  We regret that we are only able to supply eggs to those currently enrolled in the program.

Instructions for Growing Fairy Shrimp

Inside your Fairy Shrimp Kit, you will find a white envelope. Inside the envelope is a folded coffee filter. It contains a small amount of what looks like dust or dirt. In this dust are some of the most amazing structures you can find on earth – the eggs of the vernal pool fairy shrimp. Each egg contains a baby shrimp, an embryo in suspended animation. In its drought resistant casing, it waits patiently for the right time to hatch out and begin its life cycle!

Sacramento Splash - Helping children understand and value their natural world picture
Bacteria made life possible on Earth

For 2 billion years, bacteria were the only creatures on Earth. Long before the dinosaurs, a special type of bacteria slowly increased the level of oxygen in the Earth's air to 20 percent. Without this oxygen other plants and animals could not have evolved, including us.

Learn more about bacteria...
Sacramento Splash - Helping children understand and value their natural world picture
Who am I?

This weird vernal pool critter is green because it has algae living in its body.

Find out who this critter is!