My boyfriend Marc is nearly 27 but a big, geeky kid at heart so when I saw these sea monkeys advertised on Amazon a few weeks before Christmas, I just knew he would love the whole concept and bought him some. I paid £8.49 and the RRP is apparently £8.99. Sea monkeys can be purchased from a variety of shops including supermarkets, argos, toys r us and so on. They are aimed at children but they make a nice unique gift for anyone who's into the whole 'science' kind of concept of it all. These sea monkeys are marketed as 'instant life' and 'cool pets with no mess to clean up'. They are a great, much easier alternative to dogs, cats, hamsters and so on and even fish. They don't recquire large tanks or regular feeding so are really cheap 'pets' (I use that term loosely!) So, what are sea monkeys? According to Wikipedia, they are 'hybrid brine shrimp' which have been created in a labatory.

The sea monkeys come in a range of different types of packaging and I chose the 'ocean zoo'. There's also a plain version available. You get a large A4 sized piece of cardboard which is blue with the branding and product name on it along with a picture of a bizzare looking sea monkey. Attatched to this cardboard underneath a clear sheet of plastic is the 'tank' which is essentially a plastic container with a plastic base and a lid. You get instructions and 3 sachets. The instructions are illustrated and easy to follow. You first need to fill the 'tank' with either distilled or filtered water and then add the contents of each sachet as instructed. Each sachet is numbered. Number 1 is the water purifier. This removes any harmful chemicals from the water. Once you have added this to the water and stirred it around with the plastic spoon provided you will need to wait for 24 hours before adding packet number 2.

Sachet number 2 is the seamonkey eggs, which is described by the manufacturers as an instant life packet. The eggs are tiny and there are loads of them! When I and my boyfriend added them into the water they floated around and didn't do anything so we left them for a while and when we looked again a few hours later there was still nothing. After about 4 days we started to notice small things moving in the water. They were clear and small but noticeable in certain lights. There was also lots of unhatched eggs. We fed them after a week with sachet number 3 (the growth food). We gave them one small spoonful from the spoon provided and stirred it around. The manufacturers reccomend feeding them once a week and a packet of the food can last for upto a year. It is important not to overfeed the sea monkeys as it can kill them.

We have had our sea monkeys now since Christmas, so just over 4 months. At one point there were loads as they do mate, however there's now about twenty. Most are small but there are two big ones, which we've named Iron and Wine. They're not the cutest pets (and look nothing like the illustration on the packet) but are weirdly fascinating and they seem healthy and swim around a lot so they're obviously alive and not a gimmick like some people claim. We still feed them once a week and although we still haven't changed the water (seems a bit risky due to how tiny the sea monkeys are!) the water seems clean and in good condition.

These sea monkeys made an unusual and unique stocking filler for my boyfriend and he really liked them, although after about 5 days he (and I) had lost interest, however we do occasionally have a little look and see how they're getting on and we make sure we feed them weekly. A child would no doubt be fascinated by these and they are suitable for children over 3 years. I overall reccomend sea monkeys as they do work, but they're not very interesting and the novelty wears off very soon!