h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

A couple of months ago I was walking through a museum shop when a colorful box caught my eye. On the cover were the words:

The Incredible Living Sea Monkeys!

The box promised scientific wonder, entertaining pets, and loads of fun with "man-made animals". I thought, "What could these sea monkeys be? What do they look like? How can they come out of what looked like a ketchup packet and grow a centimeter long and then live for two years in a plastic glow-in-the-dark tank? Do they actually look like monkeys??" A week later I was staring cross-eyed at what at first looked like lint, but then I saw that the lint were my sea monkeys! I stared in wonder at their teeny legs undulating in their tank. But wait- those aren't monkeys, I bought a jar full of SHRIMP. Wow. Now that's good marketing.

The last of my seamonkeys died last week.

Any one here ever owned sea monkeys?

My little boy likes them. They never live the guarenteed 2 years though.

Hello there,

Sea monkeys...lordy. Anyone past a certain age who may have happened upon any sort of American comic during their childhood can probably remember being utterly enthralled by the ads for sea monkeys.

The company selling them made such incredible claims for them and described them setting up their own kingdoms and so on. The cartoons showed real vibrant communities of sea monkeys about their business.

How disappointing (follwowing intense excitement at Hamleys) did I find it then when I finally bought some 18 years later and realised I was breeding miniscule brine shrimp (one step up from yeast as a pet, really) in an elaborate tank?

Life can be so cruel.

Natalie

Mmm... yeast.
Yeast would make a good pet. For a while, anyhow.
-Rivaine.

A friend of mine, misunderstanding the warm water instructions, used a kettle and boiled his. Hmm, not the most interesting story now I write it.

I feel your pain. I can remember as a first-or second grader, saving up mobey to buy the amazing new pets, and then getting, as you say, lint. All of mine eventually died and formed a mold on top of the tank...that put me off seafood for a while.