Sea Monkeys are actually just hybrid Brine Shrimp (Artemia Salina). They are part of the Crustacean family. Their scientific name is Artemia Nyos. NYOS is an acronym for New York Oceanic Society. The only real difference between Brine Shrimp and Sea Monkeys is that Sea Monkeys live longer and are much more adaptable to their surroundings.

The reason why Sea Monkeys can be sold as "Instant Life" is because of a wonderful process called "Crtobiosis". Basically, what this means is that when the eggs aren't in the right conditions they form a "cyst" around themselves and shut down their metabolism. They can exist in this state almost indefinately without using up any energy. This defies one of the laws of biology! When put into the right conditions the cyst disapears and the Sea Monkey emerges from the egg. The Water Purifier makes it the right conditions for them to hatch after 24-36 hours.

Sea-Monkeys are invertebrates, meaning that they don't have skeletons. Instead their shells are used as skeletons (the technical name for their shell is exoskeleton. The drawback to this is that when they want to grow they have to shed their shells. In the wild this would be a problem because they're vulnerable without it but as your lovable pets they have nothing to worry about. Each time they shed their shells they get larger, and then the new shell hardens and thickens over their body after a short period. Sea Monkeys do this seven times before becoming adults.

When Sea-Monkeys are babies, they are incredibly small. For some of the time they are smaller than a fullstop! At this time they have only one eye in the middle of their forehead. As they grow older they grow two more eys on either side of the first one and then eventually the first one falls off. In the exact right conditions females can grow up to 19 mm in length and males up to 13.

Males are the aggressors of the tank. They have Graspers on their chins that they use to fight with or to hold on to the female while mating. The girls have smaller heads and lead a placid life. They have small egg sacks that are located where their body joins their tail.

Two male Sea-Monkeys will sometimes get into a fight to win a mate they both want. Only male Sea-Monkeys can fight because females don't have graspers. To fight they lock their graspers together and tumble around, each trying to get the better grip on his opponent. The fight can go on for hours until one of the combatants surrender. Occasionally the fight ends in death, but this is very rare.

Sea Monkeys can breed both sexually, and when there are no males around they can have babies without a father (technical name is Parthenogenesis)! Perfect breeding temperature is 20 - 26 degrees Celsius. When breeding, males attach themselves to where the female's tail joins her torso. They then swim along in this fashion.

Sea Monkeys eat algae, brown diatom growth, and the special food that is made for them. They do not eat their young or each other. The dark streak you can sometimes see running through their body is actually the food being digested.

Sea Monkeys can do tricks. This is because they react to the stimulations of light (scientific name is Phototaxis). Apart from what some people might say, you can't actually teach them tricks. You can just make them react to the light which makes people think that you're making them do tricks. Some scientists think that Sea Monkeys have a rudimentary learning ability, but not enough to make them learn things like tricks. Sea Monkeys also always swim against the current, which can also be used to manipulate their behaviour.

For further information look at the Official Handbook, a book on Invertebrate Zoology (look up Artemia Salina), and some sites that you can find in the links section.