Man who invented Sea Monkeys made thousands from selling fish that never actually existed

The man who invented Sea Monkeys also came up with a bunch of other weird creations which were the ideal fodder for birthday gifts.

You know, Sea Monkeys - the little brine shrimp thingies which lots of people got as presents and all you had to do was add them to water and watch them grow.

Of course you do, and by now you might know that those Sea Monkey eggs are all dried up in a state where they can survive for years before you restore them to the water.

But did you also know that the creator of Sea Monkeys also came up with X-Ray specs and was even able to sell non-existent fish?

Harold von Braunhut, the inventor of Sea Monkeys, had previously managed to sell off the 'invisible goldfish' which he promised nobody would ever see and somehow people bought them.

Considering that people once bought pet rocks, which were exactly what they sounded like, it shouldn't be too surprising that people went for a fish you can't see.

Sea Monkeys

von Braunhut sold people an empty fishbowl and some fish food and voila, you have an invisible goldfish that lives up to the promise that you can never see it because it doesn't actually exist.

Something else von Braunhut was very interested in, though he didn't invent this, was being massively racist.

You might be surprised to learn that the guy who invented X-Ray specs and Sea Monkeys was a white supremacist, but he was, and he didn't even try to hide it either.

von Braunhut supplied weapons to the Ku Klux Klan and was a regular attendee at white supremacist meetings.

Once interviewed about his racism, von Braunhut said: "You know what side I'm on. I don't make any bones about it."

Wikimedia Commons

He certainly didn't make any bones about it, and people discovering this information have said it certainly puts 'a dark twist' on his inventions.

If, for whatever reason, you want to buy an empty fishbowl and feed your non-existent fish then you can because the invisible goldfish is still a product.

Of course you could throw together your own spin on the invisible fish by buying pretty much any fish tank.

You could even branch out among the plethora of aquatic creatures that could inhabit the tank.

When he wasn't supplying weapons to the KKK and attending white supremacist meetings von Braunhut was imagining there was a goldfish in a bowl.

You could think of some other kind of fish, and also how disturbing a person the inventor of the Sea Monkeys really was.

Topics: Weird

Joe Harker

Joe graduated from the University of Salford with a degree in Journalism and worked for Reach before joining the LADbible Group. When not writing he enjoys the nerdier things in life like painting wargaming miniatures and chatting with other nerds on the internet. He's also spent a few years coaching fencing. Contact him via [email protected]

@MrJoeHarker