Sea Monkeys

[OneWingedBird]

Was flipping through the Hawkin's Bazaar catalogue that they sent out to leadeth me into temptation, when i saw that they sell 'sea monkeys'.

I remember these from the comics of the 1970s, esp. the american ones that had really exagerated pictures of what the sea monkeys were supposed to look like, which, um, looked nothing at all like a brine shrimp.

remember too trying som eas a kid, but all that happened was that a few miniscule white flappy things hateched out and all died before they grey bigger than maybe 2mm

i'm vaguely debating giving them a try again, curious if anyone else has ever had a result with these? or do they usually just snuff it?

 

[GNC]

The Fortean Times sold these a few years ago, but I didn't get any. Roger the alien on American Dad! hatched a couple but tried to feed them a Martini to celebrate and to his heartfelt dismay they died. So don't try that if you get a few.

A bit of a cheek calling them "monkeys", I thought.

 

[Philo_T]

Something similar are Triops, which I've had more impressive results with than the Sea Monkeys.

 

[Rrose_Selavy]

Yeah I remember them - what a disappointment they would have been - like the "dehydrated worm" I once bought that was just a compressed dry sponge that expanded in water

Amazing Sea-Monkeys - which were tiny brine shrimp that came to life when water was added. Sales took an upswing when comic book illustrator Joe Orlando drew comic book ads showing the humanized Sea-Monkeys enjoying life in their underwater fantasy world. Billions of the tiny creatures have been sold over the years and have generated fan websites, a television series, and a video game. Astronaut John Glenn took 400 million "Amazing Sea-Monkeys" into space with him in 1998

.


More here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea-monkey


Also here about the guy who marketed them along with x ray specs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_von_Braunhut

Von Braunhut was a manager of a man whose act consisted of diving 40 feet into a children's wading pool with only 12 inches of water. Von Braunhut raced motorcycles as The Green Hornet.

Von Braunhut subscribed to extreme right-wing beliefs. According to a report the Anti-Defamation League published in 1996, he was a member of the Ku Klux Klan and the Aryan Nations. The Washington Post printed a story on von Braunhut's political beliefs in 1998, which included his support of Richard Butler, but von Braunhut refused to comment. Relatives told the newspaper that Von Braunhut was Jewish. Von Braunhut repeatedly declined to answer later questions about his racial beliefs or his religious background from journalists.

Offical site:
http://www.sea-monkeys.com/

=

 

[JamesWhitehead]

A classic case of Great Ad, Shame about the Product. If you complained about their size, I gather the business just tried to sell you a magnifier for your tank. And they didn't carry tridents or wear crowns!

My father took one look at the ad. and said, "Well those will be American things. They won't work over here!"

I guess he couldn't do the currency conversion either.

 

[TheQuixote]

I was given a Sea Monkey set/aquarium one xmas after whinging constantly for it (the comic shop where my bro' worked used to sell them) but... I've never opened it. I was put off (okay, it was more an 'ick' factor) when I found out they were tiny shrimp things so it's still at the bottom of a box in my cupboard.

TBH the packaging is really cool and it was a conversation point when I had visitors. People would beg me to add water to see what would happen!

 

[OneWingedBird]

oger the alien on American Dad! hatched a couple but tried to feed them a Martini to celebrate and to his heartfelt dismay they died. So don't try that if you get a few.

i promise i won't. if anything, i'm a bit more worried about the cats showing an undue interest...mmmmmn... fresh shrimp!

Something similar are Triops, which I've had more impressive results with than the Sea Monkeys.

quite liked the look of those until i got to this bit of the wiki entry:

If food is not available in plenty--and sometimes even if it is--they will not hesitate to eat each other.

ick :cross eye

 

[drbastard]

I 'did' Sea Monkeys a while back to fulfill a childhood dream (that sounds wrong somehow). They amused me for a while. I liked the way they fought with each other. Well I presume that's what they were doing. They are supposed to rejuvenate but mine died despite all my best efforts.

I also once shared an office with some idiot who tried to grow Triops in a large tank. I think only one hatched eventually, it looked like a fat woodlouse. I had to move out after a while because the whole office ended up stinking like a dead crab. Then some horrible person killed it by feeding it Jasmine Tea. Not what you might call a monumental success, to be honest.

 

[Moooksta]

I had 'em...stocking filler one year...and they survived to the point I became a bit worried about their numbers.

So I flushed 'em down the loo. Which on reflection (All they need is water to breed!) probably wasn't a good idea!

mooks

 

[OneWingedBird]

don't worry mooks, i'm sure the alligators got them before they did any harm

 

[gordonrutter]

A shop here in Edinburgh sells them - just tell them I sent you!
http://www.voga.co.uk
Gordon

 

[henry]

I had a colony of monkeys between about 1999 and 2002, kept em in a water jug on the window sill at work, they were legendary. The secret is to get em out of the little case they come in, get them in a bigger container and leave the top open to the elements, plenty of fresh water top-ups, plenty of natural light, aerate with a macdonalds straw. Every few months pour them into another container (can be fun) and scrub the gunk off the original one.

My biggest monkey grew to be about 5mm, trained him to do backflips whenever I tapped the front of the jug with a pencil-tip eraser. At the time I was working in IT and we used to joke that I was breeding the next generation of PC trouble-shooters. Actually we once had a contractor in who uncannily resembled a sea monkey. Used to tuck his t-shirt into his black jeans and part his hair.

At times there were hundreds in there, once or twice they were on the brink of extinction (generally when I was on leave and entrusted them to one of the guys off a different team, I swear they were putting them in someones coffee) but they generally got back up to a healthy number.

They finally met their match when I took 9 contiguous weeks off...

 

[Philo_T]

I had a colony of monkeys between about 1999 and 2002, kept em in a water jug on the window sill at work, they were legendary. The secret is to get em out of the little case they come in, get them in a bigger container and leave the top open to the elements, plenty of fresh water top-ups, plenty of natural light, aerate with a macdonalds straw. Every few months pour them into another container (can be fun) and scrub the gunk off the original one.

My biggest monkey grew to be about 5mm, trained him to do backflips whenever I tapped the front of the jug with a pencil-tip eraser. At the time I was working in IT and we used to joke that I was breeding the next generation of PC trouble-shooters. Actually we once had a contractor in who uncannily resembled a sea monkey. Used to tuck his t-shirt into his black jeans and part his hair.

At times there were hundreds in there, once or twice they were on the brink of extinction (generally when I was on leave and entrusted them to one of the guys off a different team, I swear they were putting them in someones coffee) but they generally got back up to a healthy number.

They finally met their match when I took 9 contiguous weeks off...

where can I get a job like that ?!!!

:lol:

 

[henry]

They finally met their match when I took 9 contiguous weeks off...

where can I get a job like that ?!!!

:lol:

Yeah I was on to a good thing there. That 9 weeks was a road trip across the States. But at the time I didnt fly, so I had to get over there, and get back, by cargo ship.

 

[barfing_pumpkin]

My brother bought an ex girlfriend some sea monkeys once.

They hatched. They gave her the creeps. So he had to get rid of them.

She was ... strange. Very, very strange.

 

[ogopogo3]

I was burned by the Sea Monkey ad campaign as a youth, but I didn't let it beat me.

You can buy these things at one-fifth of the Sea Monkey price by just going into any aquarium store and purchasing a Brine Shrimp Starter Kit. Baby Sea Monkeys are usually used for feeding spawned (baby) aquarium fish. You buy a kit that looks like a black box with a hole in the top. You fill a little jar with fresh water and place it face down on the hole. The shrimp will go towards the light and end up swimming up into your little freshwater jar. You pour it into your tank and your fish have live food.

All told, I say go with the Ant Farm. Rumor has it, they play a version of baseball.

 

[henry]

You can buy these things at one-fifth of the Sea Monkey price by just going into any aquarium store and purchasing a Brine Shrimp Starter Kit...

Brine shrimp? Sea monkeys are actual monkeys, that can swim, and somersault. Believe it.

 

[TheQuixote]

Sorry for the crap quality on the pic - I was at a table-top sale on Saturday when I picked up this Sea-Monkey 'Ghostly Galleon' set for just a quid!

Apparently these are an:

[...] incredible new variety of the legendary pets, they grow to the size of some tropical fish, yet they're a hundred times easier to raise and keep.

That's why new hybrid Sea-Monkeys have actually flown in space on three successful shuttle missions!

Best of all these new Sea-Monkeys will change color! As they grow watch then turn yellow, orange and red! [...]

It yaddas on about them doing 'stunts' etc. but if these new and improved Sea-Monkeys are a larger variety, the 'aquarium' is the same size as the one that I already had (about the size of a paperback book).

 

[zothecula]

If you're feeling rich, a neat alternative to Sea Monkeys is an Eco-Sphere. It's a glass globe with salt water, shrimps and algae sealed inside. If you give it just the right amount of light, the algae grows and gives off oxygen, the shrimp breathe the oxygen and eat some of the algae, and their poop/carbon dioxide in turn feeds the algae. These things were originally developed by NASA, and supposedly can last up to several years with no feeding or water changes. I tried making my own fresh-water version several times, by sealing up various tiny pond critters (No fish or tadpoles) in a glass jar, along with some pond plants, water and sand. VERY fascinating for the first several months, but nothing much other than the tiniest of creatures were left after that.

 

[blessmycottonsocks]

Those of us of a certain age will remember adverts in comics for Sea Monkeys along with loads of other misleadingly advertised merchandise:

Take a trip down memory lane with the following video:

 

[gordonrutter]

I'm currently growing sea monkeys at work, it doesn't take long for them to get to a decent size.

 

[Swifty]

Someone once told me about a time he and one of his mates had just gotten back home from an all night rave. His mate saw a pint of water and necked it not realising it was his friend's sea monkey colony. lol.

 

[Stormkhan]

Just to let you know ...
Our local Pets At Home are selling sea monkey starter sets ... as sea monkeys of course!
A firm never knowingly missing out on a dodge to sell to kids!