What Are Some Facts About Sea Monkeys?

Sea Monkeys have been around since 1960 and still provide enjoyment to many.  Let’s look into what they are and how they came to be so popular.

One of the most necessary facts to know about these tiny creatures called Sea Monkeys is they are brine shrimp. 

• When you decide to buy a kit and raise them, you get instant life crystals that are really just the eggs of the brine shrimp. 
• The eggs are in a state of suspended animation and can survive like that for up to two years. 
• They started out in 1960 as a novelty aquarium pet being sold in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.  

How Sea Monkeys Got Their Name

The story about how Sea Monkeys got their name is fun and surprising. 

• The name “Sea-Monkeys” is a trademark owned by the Transcience Corporation. 
• Harold von Braunhut came up with the idea of a children’s pet that was brine shrimp and tried marketing them as Wham-O Instant Fish. 
• They didn’t sell well until he changed the name to Sea Monkeys and advertised them in comic books. 
• What really helped them to start selling was the clever illustrations that showed a family of Sea Monkeys that look like monkeys with tails and three little prongs on their heads that look like a crown. 
• They are pictured living in a wonderful kingdom under the water. 

Many things are named after something they don’t really look like.  Sometimes things are named after something because of the way they behave.  Sea lions, sea horses, and sea cows resemble their namesakes a bit in looks and behavior and that is the same with sea monkeys.  They were named after monkeys because of their long tail and funny behavior.  

Facts About Sea Monkeys

Here are some facts about brine shrimp, which are also called Sea Monkeys. 

• Sea Monkeys are crustaceans and are a variant of Artemia salina, which are called brine shrimp. 
• A Sea Monkey’s actual name is Artemis NYOS. 
• Artemia salina goes into cryptobiosis, which is suspended animation, and that is what allows them to be sold as a powder. 
• When they are placed into water, they hatch.
• Artemia salina has been around for 100 million years and grows to about 15 mm or 0.6 inch. 
• The adults have 11 pairs of legs and three eyes. 
• The males have two big antennae on their head. 
• They live in salt lakes and swim upside down.  This fact may have contributed to their name.
• They can tolerate very high concentrations of salt and feed on green algae. 
• When they reproduce, there are two kinds of eggs: thin-shelled and thick-shelled. 
• The thin shelled ones hatch right away and the thick-shelled ones are the ones that are in a dormant state. 
• The thick-shelled eggs are produced when the salt content of the water is high, which means the body of water they live in may be drying out. 
• Since they can survive two years, that gives nature some time to replenish the water.  This is one of the things that have allowed this species to live for a very long time.

Popularity of Sea Monkeys

The last group of facts about Sea Monkeys is about related products. 

• There was a television series called The Amazing Live Sea Monkeys in 1992 about a professor who somehow had three Sea Monkeys who were the size of humans.  
• Also, there are places online where you can raise virtual Sea Monkeys and purchase a CD-ROM game. 
• You can adopt a virtual Sea Monkey for your website, blog, or social media page and even buy Sea Monkey T-shirts. 
• If you are into Sea Monkeys big time, you can actually save a lot of money making their food using some fish food, an egg, and dry baby food.

Now you know the mystery of the Sea Monkeys.