How does a sea monkey come to life after being in a package?
“Sea monkeys” are actually brine shrimp (artemia). The dormant cysts are packaged and can remain viable indefinitely, as long as they are kept dry. Put in water, they rehydrate and come back to life. Extensive information on them can be found here.
Extreamly sorry for the Hijack, but QED what does the SDSAB under your name mean?
“Straight Dope Science Advisory Board.”
Means him’s a smart one. 
One, especially a mere guest, does not address a SDSAB member directly but only obliquely. Such as through a charter member like Master Wang-Ka.
Welcome, and enjoy your visit. Should you be interested in becoming one of us, you should poke around in ATMB and FAQ, ETC. 
I had never heaerd about sea-monkeys. I did some googling, and found this pic ?
Can somebody explain what the attraction is? Besides the fact you sort of sow them? Are they good listeners? Act cute? Taste good? 
Mostly because of ads like this one, which used to run in comic books:
http://www.steveconley.com/pages/sea2.htm
Marketing common brine shrimp as “sea monkeys” was the idea of a guy named Harold von Braunhut. Most people these days realize the ads are absurd, but might just be marginally interested for nostalgia reasons.
Thanks. Well, that advertisment certainly makes a lot of promises. I can’t see how any of those can be true. They jump like mini-seals? They love attention? *With a shrimpbrain?!? *
Can anyone link to a picture of the grown-up beasties?
As it happens, I have a tank full of the critters on my computer desk. I don’t like seafood, and they’re too small for humans to eat, really. They kind of act cute, and they’re VERY good listeners. I talk to mine all the time, and they never criticize me or interrupt. I always wanted some when I was a kid, and a few months ago, I picked up a kit in a Target (a discount department store for you non-Americans).
I’d say that the main appeal is that they can be sold cheaply, without maintenance on the part of the seller, and they’re easy to take care of when they do hatch. I just have to feed them every five days or so, give them air daily, and filter the water every now and then. Filtering the water is the only real chore. These things would be an ideal starter pet, because they don’t need to be tended to daily, but they do require SOME care. They’re very inexpensive to care for, too…I just needed to buy a kit and then didn’t have to buy anything else. Whereas with our “free” orphan feral kitten that my daughter caught, we had to take him to the vet, get his shots, get food, toys, etc. We already had an old adult cat, so we didn’t have to pony up any money for the food and water bowls or the litter box. I’d guess that we spent about $200 on that kitten in the first week after we got him. We love him, and he’s a much better pet than the sea monkeys are, but he cost a lot more, too. Plus, he hacks up the occasional hairball, which the sea monkeys have NEVER done, not having hair.
I find them moderately amusing, but I mostly have them for the nostalgia value.
I like Sea Monkeys. The manual that came with ours is a real hoot (example passage: “Sea Monkeys are no dream… But they are a dream pet!”).
You can teach them ‘tricks’, so the article is not lying. You can get them to follow you, somersault, etc. The ‘trick’ is that brine shrimp have a photic response that causes them to respond to light. So get a little penlight and shine it into the tank, and you can make the Sea Monkeys follow the light around - and if they are in direct light they will spin in little circles.
What’s a good way to filter the water without actually spending money on special Sea Monkey brand equipment?
Brine shrimp are also good food for some fish, like bettas.
They’re actually one of the primary foods for almost all saltwater fish as well. There’s a sea mokey holocaust in my tank twice a week.
What’s more, you can turn them into sentient beings by adding a bit of human genetic material to the tank! (See that classic episode of South Park.)
Don’t look so shocked. This message board has plenty of shrimpbrains who love attention.
Tease! The page stops when your seamonkeys passed the encirceled-dot-on-a picture-stage. What happened after the unexplained death of Herman/Hermione on October 7, 2002?
Mmh…I wonder what is more fun, the tadpoles I know, or these seamonkeys.
FWIW, brine shrimp are what I feed along with flake food to my pihrana’s for the first few months untill they can take guppies. Though, I buy them frozen. Wonder if they’d revive given enough time in warm water?
I like the watch you can get to carry them around with you at work.