Sea-Monkeys
- For the Internet software project, see SeaMonkey.
- For the 1992 television series, see The Amazing Live Sea Monkeys.
Sea-Monkey is a brand name of a hybrid of Artemia salina, a species of brine shrimp. These are a type of fairy shrimp—not true shrimp, but a branchiopod. The term Sea-Monkeys (sometimes unhyphenated) is a trademark used to sell them as a novelty gift. They originate in salt lakes and salt evaporation flats.
Sea-Monkeys can reproduce both sexually (requiring a male and a female) and asexually. When the eggs are laid, there are fewer males than females per "litter". This is probably because they are not needed for reproduction. Females stop reproducing with the males when the males are too few.
Sea-Monkeys have been cited in studies of DNA and sexual behavior, primarily because they are commonly available specimens.
Commercial kit availability
They were first marketed in 1957 by Harold von Braunhut as "Instant Life", though Braunhut changed the name to "Sea-Monkeys" on May 10, 1962. Many types of Sea-Monkey kits are now available. The company produces the original Ocean View tank as well as a variety of other products. The Sea-Monkeys company is now part of Educational Insights, and as of 2005 it is headed by George C. Atamian.
Sea-Monkeys are a clever piece of merchandise. In fact, these animals are nothing more than ordinary Artemia salina presented in an 'instant life' fashion. The U.S. patent (#3,673,986) granted in 1972 describes this as "hatching brine shrimps to give the appearance of instantaneous hatching." Adverts for Sea-Monkeys were widespread in comics in the 1970s - they featured drawings of smiling humanoid creatures that bore little resemblance to brine shrimps.
The key observation that allowed unhatched "Sea-Monkeys" to be cheaply packaged, shipped, and handled is that, in certain easily prepared environments, they enter cryptobiosis, a natural state of suspended animation. When released into their aquarium they leave this state and hatch.
Basically, one adds a 'purifier package' on day one. The user is unaware that this package already contains eggs in addition to the salt. At day two, one adds the 'instant eggs package', containing epsom salts, borax and soda, in addition to eggs, yeast, and a blue dye. The blue dye is used to enhance the 'instant life' experience by making the freshly hatched animals more visible. The Sea-Monkeys seen during the second day after adding the 'eggs package' are derived from the eggs added with the 'purifier' package. The food package is a mixture of spirulina and dried yeast. The 'boost' packages mainly contain salts, which induce sexual activity in artemia.
Although Sea-Monkeys have a biological life cycle of one year, the product guarantees that the Sea-Monkeys live for up to 2 years. This should be understood as the colony being able to sustain itself for two years.
As of 2005, there are even "Sea-Monkeys" themed slot machines. Sea-Monkeys are sometimes nicknamed "salty simians".
Appearances in other media
- The Internet celebrity known as Lemon Demon made a song about Sea Monkeys called "Dead Sea Monkeys".
- The popular animated TV show South Park has an episode which revolves around "Sea People". In the Season 6 episode "The Simpsons Already Did It", the main characters are lured in by a "Sea Monkey"-like print ad promising a virtual civilization in their fishtank. The "people" turn out to be regular brine shrimp.
- In the film Amos and Andrew Nicholas Cage as Amos, the product of a dysfunctional family, says that he sent off for a sea monkey kit as a boy because he envied the happy family life of the little 'people' in the illustration.
- In the Family Guy episode "Let's Go to the Hop", Chris Griffin's Sea Monkeys are portrayed as a middle class family sitting down to dinner. This pokes fun at the original packaging of Sea Monkeys, which represented them as "little aquatic people". [1]
- The Amazing Live Sea Monkeys was a live-action TV series that aired in 1992. The plot revolved around three Sea Monkeys who were grown to a human size by a mad professor.
- Sea-monkeys are mentioned by Dory in the animated movie Finding Nemo.
- In episode 5.46 Scythe for Sale of The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, Billy wanted to buy "Sea Critters" after he saw an advertisement advertising them, but he didn't have enough money. He then puts on a yard sale.
- In an episode of "The Man Show," one contestant on the game called "The Wheel of Destiny," was forced to chug a whole glass of Sea-Monkeys.
- The adventure game Space Quest V features "Space Monkeys".
- The movie Superman Returns involved crystals that grew in water, which a character described as "just like Sea Monkeys." This may have also been a throwback to the early Superman comics, which frequently contained Sea Monkey advertisements.
- The Pixies feature a song on their album Trompe le Monde called "Palace of the Brine," which is about brine shimp in the Great Salt Lake; it features the lines "I hear the droning / in the shrine / of the Sea Monkey."
- Nonsense Humor Magazine's mascot is a yellow Sea Monkey called Snuffy the Sea Monkey.[2]