If this doesn’t prove that there’s a day for everything, nothing will: Today is National Sea-Monkey Day.
Sea-Monkeys, A Brief History
Sea-Monkeys first came on the scene in the early 1960s. Their creator, Harold von Braunhut, originally sold them under the name Instant Life in 1957. In 1962 he started selling them under the much snappier, and more marketing friendly, Sea-Monkeys brand.
True or False: Sea-Monkeys Are Nothing More Than Brine Shrimp?
Ready for your biology lesson for the day? According to the Official Sea-Monkey Web Site, they’re “a unique species of brine shrimp, known by the scientific name of Artemia NYOS.”
According to Wikipedia, Sea-Monkeys are “a variant of Artemia salina,” which is a species of brine shrimp and a type of fairy shrimp. (Interestingly, like “monkey” in “Sea-Monkeys” is a misnomer, so is “fairy” shrimp. They’re not really shrimp, but branchiopods.)
So the answer is TRUE: they are brine shrimp, but an enhanced version using something called “aquaculture technology.” Also interesting to note: trademarked Sea-Monkeys are only made from the Artemia NYOS type of brine shrimp.
The “Dream Pet”
If you or someone in your family is looking for a no fuss, no muss pet, Sea-Monkeys may be your best bet.
• They don’t take up much room.
• They don’t eat much.
• They don’t require much maintenance or clean up.
• All you need to do is add water. (And follow the instructions on the packets.)
And if you want to get fancy, you can buy special tanks and accessories. Yes, I’m serious. Don’t believe me? Check out all the Sea-Monkeys products available in the Families.com Deal section. (My favorites are the Sea-Monkeys Super Sleuth Set, Sea-Monkeys Pirate Gold, and the Sea-Monkeys Wrist Aquarium.)
My First Sea-Monkeys
My sister was the one to introduce me to Sea-Monkeys. (That was one of the advantages of growing up with a sister 14 years older than me –she’d experienced things already and knew the cool ones to pass on.)
Not that Sea-Monkeys are “cool” per se, but their name sure is. I remember how excited I was at the prospect of having Sea-Monkeys for pets. I had no idea what they were; I’d never seen them before. I only knew what my sister had told me about them, and that was they came in packets and you added water to “grow” them. I figured they’d be akin to sea horses or something.
This was the reaction my five-year-old at the time mind must’ve had:
Say what? We’re going to grow monkeys that live in water and keep them in our house? Wow! That is cool!
(I say “must’ve” because I can’t verify that’s verbatim what I thought, but I bet it was pretty close.)
Anyway, you can probably imagine how disappointed I was when our Sea-Monkeys didn’t hatch and I didn’t get to see a bunch of webbed-footed monkeys swimming about.
Well, that was back in the 1970s. With all the advances in technology, nowadays Sea-Monkeys are guaranteed to grow.
Got Sea-Monkeys?
Have you successfully reared Sea-Monkeys? Got any funny Sea-Monkeys tales to tell? I’d love to hear them, so please feel free to leave a comment.