Other names | Instant Life |
---|---|
Type | Novelty aquarium pet |
Inventor(s) | Harold von Braunhut |
Country | United States |
Availability | 1962–present |
Slogan | The World's Only Instant Pets! |
Sea-Monkeys is a marketing term for brine shrimp (Artemia) sold as novelty aquarium pets. Developed in the United States in 1957 [1] by Harold von Braunhut, they are sold as eggs intended to be added to water, and most often come bundled in a kit of three pouches and instructions. Sometimes a small tank and additional pouches are included. The product was marketed in the 1960s and 70s, especially in comic books, and remains a presence in popular culture. [2]
Ant farms had been popularized in 1956 by Milton Levine. [3] Harold von Braunhut invented a brine-shrimp-based product the next year, 1957. [3] Von Braunhut collaborated with a marine biologist, Anthony D’Agostino, to develop the proper mix of nutrients and chemicals in dry form that could be added to plain tap water to create a suitable habitat for the shrimp to thrive. Von Braunhut was granted a patent for this process on July 4, 1972. [4]
They were initially called "Instant Life" and sold for $0.49, [5] but von Braunhut changed the name to "Sea-Monkeys" in 1962. The new name was based on their salt-water habitat, together with the supposed resemblance of the animals' tails to those of monkeys. [6]
Sea-Monkeys were intensely marketed in comic books throughout the 1960s and early 1970s [6] using illustrations by the comic-book illustrator Joe Orlando. These showed humanoid animals that bore no resemblance to the crustaceans. [7] Many purchasers were disappointed by the dissimilarity and by the short lifespan of the animals. [6] Von Braunhut is quoted as stating: "I think I bought something like 3.2 million pages of comic book advertising a year. It worked beautifully." [6]
A colony is started by adding the contents of a packet labeled "Water Purifier" to a tank of water. This packet contains salt, water conditioner, and brine shrimp eggs. After 24 hours, this is augmented with the contents of a packet labeled "Instant Life Eggs", containing more eggs, yeast, borax, soda, salt, some food, and sometimes a dye. [7] Shortly after that, Sea-Monkeys hatch from the eggs that were in the "Water Purifier" packet. "Growth Food" containing yeast and spirulina is then added every seven days. The best temperature for hatching is 24-27°C. [7] Additional pouches can be purchased on the official website, [8] though these are not required for the well-being of the Sea-Monkeys.
Artemia usually has a lifespan of two to three months. Under ideal home conditions, pet sea-monkeys have been observed to live for up to five years. As they are easy to breed and care for, brine shrimp are also often used as a model organism in scientific research to study developmental biology, genetics, and toxicology. [9]
The animals sold as Sea-Monkeys are claimed to be an artificial breed known as Artemia NYOS, formed by hybridizing different species of Artemia . [6] The manufacturer also claims that they live longer and grow bigger than ordinary brine shrimp. [5] They undergo cryptobiosis or anhydrobiosis, a condition of apparent lifelessness which allows them to survive the desiccation of the temporary pools in which they live. Sea-monkeys are known for their unique life-cycle. They hatch from eggs that can remain dormant for years until they are exposed to water. Once the eggs are in water, they hatch into nauplius larvae, which eventually develop into adult Sea-Monkeys. The entire life cycle takes around 8-10 weeks. [3]
Astronaut John Glenn took Sea-Monkeys into space on October 29, 1998, aboard Space Shuttle Discovery during mission STS-95. After nine days in space, they were returned to Earth and hatched eight weeks later, apparently unaffected by their travels. [7] However, earlier experiments on Apollo 16 and Apollo 17 , where the eggs (along with other biological systems in a state of rest, such as spores, seeds, and cysts) traveled to the Moon and back and were exposed to significant cosmic rays, observed a high sensitivity to cosmic radiation in the Artemia salina eggs; only 10% of the embryos which were induced to develop from eggs survived to adulthood. The most-common mutations found during the developmental stages of the irradiated eggs were deformations of the abdomen or deformations on the swimming-appendages and naupliar eye of the nauplius. [10]
The Great Salt Lake is the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere and the eighth-largest terminal lake in the world. It lies in the northern part of the U.S. state of Utah and has a substantial impact upon the local climate, particularly through lake-effect snow. It is a remnant of Lake Bonneville, a prehistoric body of water that covered much of western Utah.
The black-necked grebe or eared grebe is a member of the grebe family of water birds. It was described in 1831 by Christian Ludwig Brehm. Its breeding plumage features distinctive ochre-coloured feathers which extend behind its eye and over its ear coverts. The rest of the upper parts, including the head, neck, and breast, are coloured black to blackish brown. The flanks are tawny rufous to maroon-chestnut, and the abdomen is white. In its non-breeding plumage, this bird has greyish-black upper parts, including the top of the head and a vertical stripe on the back of the neck. The flanks are also greyish-black. The rest of the body is a white or whitish colour. The juvenile has more brown in its darker areas. This species is present in parts of Africa, Eurasia, and the Americas.
Roe, or hard roe, is the fully ripe internal egg masses in the ovaries, or the released external egg masses, of fish and certain marine animals such as shrimp, scallop, sea urchins and squid. As a seafood, roe is used both as a cooked ingredient in many dishes, and as a raw ingredient for delicacies such as caviar.
Harold Nathan Braunhut, also known as Harold von Braunhut, was an American mail-order marketer and inventor most famous as the creator and seller of both the Amazing Sea-Monkeys and the X-ray specs, along with many other novelty products marketed towards children, often advertised in comic books. Von Braunhut also gained notoriety for his racial and political views. Despite his Jewish upbringing, he closely associated with white supremacist groups, including the Ku Klux Klan and the Aryan Nations organization.
Artemia is a genus of aquatic crustaceans also known as brine shrimp or sea monkeys. It is the only genus in the family Artemiidae. The first historical record of the existence of Artemia dates back to the first half of the 10th century AD from Lake Urmia, Iran, with an example called by an Iranian geographer an "aquatic dog", although the first unambiguous record is the report and drawings made by Schlösser in 1757 of animals from Lymington, England. Artemia populations are found worldwide, typically in inland saltwater lakes, but occasionally in oceans. Artemia are able to avoid cohabiting with most types of predators, such as fish, by their ability to live in waters of very high salinity.
Mysida is an order of small, shrimp-like crustaceans in the malacostracan superorder Peracarida. Their common name opossum shrimps stems from the presence of a brood pouch or "marsupium" in females. The fact that the larvae are reared in this pouch and are not free-swimming characterises the order. The mysid's head bears a pair of stalked eyes and two pairs of antennae. The thorax consists of eight segments each bearing branching limbs, the whole concealed beneath a protective carapace and the abdomen has six segments and usually further small limbs.
Animals in space originally served to test the survivability of spaceflight, before human spaceflights were attempted. Later, many species were flown to investigate various biological processes and the effects microgravity and space flight might have on them. Bioastronautics is an area of bioengineering research that spans the study and support of life in space. To date, seven national space programs have flown non-human animals into space: the United States, Soviet Union, France, Argentina, China, Japan and Iran.
The Indian prawn is one of the major commercial prawn species of the world. It is found in the Indo-West Pacific from eastern and south-eastern Africa, through India, Malaysia and Indonesia to southern China and northern Australia. Adult shrimp grow to a length of about 22 cm (9 in) and live on the seabed to depths of about 90 m (300 ft). The early developmental stages take place in the sea before the larvae move into estuaries. They return to the sea as sub-adults.
Clam shrimp are a group of bivalved branchiopod crustaceans that resemble the unrelated bivalved molluscs. They are extant and also known from the fossil record, from at least the Devonian period and perhaps before. They were originally classified in the former order Conchostraca, which later proved to be paraphyletic, because water fleas are nested within clam shrimps. Clam shrimp are now divided into three orders, Cyclestherida, Laevicaudata, and Spinicaudata, in addition to the fossil family Leaiidae.
Aquarium fish feed is plant or animal material intended for consumption by pet fish kept in aquariums or ponds. Fish foods normally contain macronutrients, trace elements and vitamins necessary to keep captive fish in good health. Approximately 80% of fishkeeping hobbyists feed their fish exclusively prepared foods that most commonly are produced in flake, pellet or tablet form. Some fish foods also contain additives such as sex hormones or beta carotene to artificially enhance the color of ornamental fish.
Corydoras pygmaeus, or the pygmy corydoras or pygmy catfish is a tropical and freshwater fish belonging to the subfamily Corydoradinae of the family Callichthyidae. It originates in tropical inland waters in South America, and is found in the Madeira River basin in Brazil.
The big-belly seahorse or pot-bellied seahorse is one of the largest seahorse species in the world, with a length of up to 35 cm (14 in), and is the largest in Australia. Seahorses are members of the family Syngnathidae, and are teleost fishes. They are found in southeast Australia and New Zealand, and are listed on Appendix II of CITES. They are the only species of seahorse found in New Zealand, with a habitat range spanning from the Three Kings Island in the north all the way to the Snares Island in the south.
Artemia salina is a species of brine shrimp – aquatic crustaceans that are more closely related to Triops and cladocerans than to true shrimp. It belongs to a lineage that does not appear to have changed much in 100 million years.
The lined seahorse, northern seahorse or spotted seahorse, is a species of fish that belongs to the family Syngnathidae. H. erectus is a diurnal species with an approximate length of 15 cm and lifespan of one to four years. The H. erectus species can be found in myriad colors, from greys and blacks to reds, greens, and oranges. The lined seahorse lives in the western Atlantic Ocean as far north as Canada and as far south as the Caribbean, Mexico, and Venezuela. It swims in an erect position and uses its dorsal and pectoral fins for guidance while swimming.
Crustaceans may pass through a number of larval and immature stages between hatching from their eggs and reaching their adult form. Each of the stages is separated by a moult, in which the hard exoskeleton is shed to allow the animal to grow. The larvae of crustaceans often bear little resemblance to the adult, and there are still cases where it is not known what larvae will grow into what adults. This is especially true of crustaceans which live as benthic adults, more-so than where the larvae are planktonic, and thereby easily caught.
Chirocephalus diaphanus is a widely distributed European species of fairy shrimp that lives as far north as Great Britain, where it is the only surviving species of fairy shrimp and is protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. It is a translucent animal, about 0.5 in (13 mm) long, with reddened tips to the abdomen and appendages. The body comprises a head, a thorax bearing 11 pairs of appendages, and a seven-segmented abdomen. In males, the antennae are enlarged to form "frontal appendages", while females have an egg pouch at the end of the thorax.
The Sečovlje Saltworks is the largest Slovenian salt evaporation pond. Along with the Strunjan Saltworks, they are the northernmost Mediterranean saltworks and one of the few where salt is still produced in a traditional way, as well as a wetland of international importance and a breeding place for waterbirds. They are part of the Piran Saltworks and are located at Parecag in Slovenian Istria, the southwest of the country, at the Adriatic Sea, along the mouth of the Dragonja River near Sečovlje.
Brine shrimp have the ability to produce dormant eggs, known as cysts. This has led to the extensive use of brine shrimp in aquaculture. The cysts may be stored for long periods and hatched on demand to provide a convenient form of live feed for larval fish and crustaceans.
Galaxea fascicularis is a species of colonial stony coral in the family Euphylliidae, commonly known as Octopus coral, Fluorescence grass coral, and Galaxy coral among various vernacular names.
The Apollo-era Biostack experiment was a NASA-run bioscience experiment flown aboard Apollo 16 and Apollo 17. The goal of these experiments was to study the effects of high-energy cosmic rays on biological materials. The experiments contained various biological materials including bacterial spores, seeds, and the eggs of a variety of species. The principal investigator was H. Bücker of the University of Frankfurt.