Hambux for construction of the world's first and only underwater hamster utopia. Don't forget the merch, too! --->

1. Q: Why is it all red? A: Hamsters and other crepuscular or nocturnal creatures prefer red light, it's more comfortable for their eyes. 2. Q: I don't see any hamsters. Is there one in the habitat right now? A: Yes, always. Hamsters spend a lot of time hiding and sleeping. The one in the habitat usually hides in the fluff or under the hollow base of the exercise wheel. It takes patience to see them when they're out running, drinking, etc. Hang tight. 3. Q: What the fuck am I looking at exactly? A: This is an underwater habitat for a single hamster occupant at a time, situated in an aquarium. It currently consists of two modules linked by a tunnel. 4. Q: How do you feed them? A: I close the gate valves, separate the food and water module, bring it to the surface, open the lid, clean and resupply it, close it, resubmerge it, reattach it to the tunnel, purge water from the tunnel using compressed air, then reopen the gate valves. This happens once per month. 5. Q: What happens if the pump fails? A: There are two pumps, for redundancy. 6. Q: What happens if the power fails? A: There's individual battery backup for each pump. 7. Q: Can I support this somehow? A: https://www.patreon.com/hampture 8. Q: Is there merch? T-shirts? Posters? A: https://teespring.com/stores/i-chose-hampture 9. Q: Why don't you connect the land cage to the underwater habitat? A: Leaks are prevented because air pressure inside the habitat is 1 psi or 0.075 atm higher than surface level air pressure. So leaks permit bubbles to escape, but water can't get in. If I connected the habitat to the surface via tunnel, it would equalize air pressure between the habitat and the surface. The water pressure at depth would then exceed the air pressure inside the habitat, and be capable of pushing water inside through leaks. 10. Q: How do they breathe? A: The habitat is constantly sent fresh air by a pump on the surface. Stagnant air then bubbles out through the seals into the water. 11. Q: What is the point of this? A: What is the point of model railroads? You can't ride them. They are cool to look at and fun to build. But I would also like to discover by model scale prototyping how to reduce the cost and improve the safety of human scale underwater dwellings, for the purpose of saturation diving in support of mariculture (offshore ocean farming). 12. Q: This is animal cruelty! A: Animal cruelty is paying for animals to be factory farmed, injected with steroids, then slaughtered for your culinary enjoyment. It's the fact that male chicks at poultry farms are dumped, live, into shredders because they're not needed. Housing a hamster underwater with heated floors, humidity control, chew toys, a wheel, etc. is not animal cruelty. The hamster is not in pain. It is a mild inconvenience at worst. FFS, the hamsters live better than I do. Rats, which are in all ways more intelligent, sensitive creatures are routinely fed to snakes which are by no means necessary to keep as pets. Have some perspective. This isn't ideal, and I am always working on larger habitats and expansion modules, but there are degrees of morality and housing hamsters safely underwater ranks much higher than eating meat or feeding rats to snakes. 13. Q: How old are the hamsters? A: About a year, at time of writing 14. Q: How long do they spend underwater? A: One month. The habitats are cleaned and resupplied at the same time that the hamsters trade places. One is underwater while the other is on land. 15. Q: How do you clean it? A: I bring the modules to the surface, open them up and clean them once per month. The system is modular using gate valves so the constituent habitats and tunnel can be separated without letting water inside. 16. Q: Have any hamsters drowned? A: No, I do not put hamsters into habitats during testing for 72 hours and have taken many precautions for their safety. Positive pressure habitats are also inherently idiot proof due to the higher air pressure preventing leaks from admitting water, as discussed earlier. So long as airflow never stops for long periods, there is no risk of flooding. 17. Q: Does it get cold down there? A: Yes it does, but the floors are electrically heated. 18. Q: What about humidity? A: Humidity is managed via inline water traps. It is monitored by the thermometer/hygrometer combo in the module on the right. Humidity and temperature are kept within the ideal range for dwarf hamsters. 19. Q: How long have you been doing this? A: About 10 years. 20. Q: Do you plan to expand the habitat? A: Not the one in the aquarium, there's no more room for additional modules. However construction has begun on larger habitats intended for emplacement in a lake or pond. 21. Q: Is this so people don't steal your hamsters? A: No. 22. Q: How is waste managed? A: There is silica gel litter rated at one month between replacement for cats. For hamster it is overkill. It desiccates feces and absorbs urine, also helping to keep the air dry. 23. Q: What happens if there's a leak? A: Internal overpressure prevents small leaks from admitting water. Severe enough leaks will admit water very slowly, only up to the point where the leak is. This has happened once before with no casualties; as only one module was afflicted, the hamster didn't so much as become wet. Moisture sensors at floor level in both modules detect any water ingress immediately and sound a very loud alarm, audible from anywhere in the house (but not to the hamsters, as the alarms are outside the aquarium). This alarm system, plus the inherent safety properties of positive pressure habitats, plus constant monitoring of the aquarium via Twitch keeps the hamsters very safe from drowning. 24. Q: Is this a 24/7 stream? A: Yes it is, though I sometimes interrupt it to stream games. 25. Q: When do you stream games? A: I have no set schedule, right now waiting on Oculus Link to release. 26. Q: What are your plans for the future? A: Megahab, a 2 story habitat with LED lighting and internal webcam. A lake or pond colony. Skyhab, a balloon levitated habitat. 27. Q: Do you have a Youtube? A: https://www.youtube.com/user/anonbutt 28. Q: Do you have a blog? A: hampture.blogspot.com 29. Q: If the habitat air is higher pressure than the water, does it hurt the hamsters? A: The aquarium is about 2 and a half feet deep. The hamsters are exposed to around .07559 atm more than they would be on the surface, or about 1 additional psi. That is roughly half the depth at which it becomes necessary to pop your ears. 30. Q: Will you make an exercise wheel that generates power? A: I already have, but it's too large for the current modules. It will be installed in Megahab. 31. Q: Do you have a Discord? A: https://discord.gg/mEnnCEz 32. Q: Can I email you? A: ichosehampture@gmail.com 33. Q: What about fish? A: I had some, they died. I am bad at fish, and good at mammals. 34. Q: Have humans ever lived underwater? A: Yes, there have been 70 underwater labs since 1965. Currently Aquarius Reef Base is the only one used in the open ocean, for coral research: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gj6frb_mHzQ Prior to Aquarius, the largest and most ambitious human scale undersea habitation project was Conshelf 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mp0PA-O_4c Detailed articles about underwater labs, past and present, are available as a supporter bonus on my Patreon. 35. Q: Do they ever get lonely? A: No, hamsters are asocial and merely tolerate one another if cohabitated: https://thehamsterhouse.com/hamster-info/hamster-behavior/do-hamsters-get-lonely/ 36. Q: Will you wake up the hamster so I can watch it doing stuff? A: No, the hamster lives it's life without outside disturbances, save for being switched between the land cage and underwater habitat. Hamsters need a lot of sleep, be patient. 37. Q: Isn't that a small space for a hamster? A: Neither hamster lives full time underwater, there is a land cage. That's what the upper left video feed is from. 38. Q: What about "Hamplumbia"? A floating sky habitat using balloons? A: Already built it, need expensive helium. One hamster has been to an altitude of 400 feet aboard a modified drone, there's a video of this on my Youtube. 39. Q: How many hamsternauts have there been? A: 8 in total, spread across 4 crews, over 10 years: 1. Megafucker Supreme, 2. Hamdrew Ryan, Ratlas & Nomtaine 3. George & Scott 4. Jim & Jade 40. Q: Is the light on 24/7 or are there dark periods? A: It's on 24/7 but the hamster has 2 available hides when it desires darkness. 41. Q: Have you played Bioshock/SOMA/Subnautica/Narcosis/XCom2/Aquanox/[insert underwater game here]? A: Yes, I have played every game involving underwater science fiction ever made, seen every movie, and read every book based on that premise. 42. Q: What are their names? A: Jim and Jade. The one in Hambunker is named Dick. 43. Q: How long is this video? A: It's not a video. It's a 24/7 live stream. I cannot believe people have asked me this. 44. Q: When will you drown the hamster? A: Never, preventing that outcome is kind of the entire point of the habitat 45. Q: What's that flickering/shimmering?? Is there a fire?? A: No that's the light being refracted by the surface of the water. Light passing through water's surface results in a rippling light effect being cast onto whatever's beneath the surface, to a certain depth.