Sea Monkeys inventor made thousands from selling fish that never actually existed

Making thousands of pounds for doing very little work is the absolute dream and the man who invented Sea Monkeys became a master of doing just that.

For those unaware, Sea Monkeys are the little brine shrimp things that you add water to and watch grow.

We used to get them for Christmas or birthdays - back when the internet wasn't really a thing.

They have a lifespan of 'two to three months' but under the right conditions, could live for up to five years.

Now, the inventor of Sea Monkeys - Harold von Braunhut - was also known for selling a rather unique product - non-existent fish.

Yes, you read that right.

Sea Monkeys

The American inventor made thousands from selling '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 - so it shouldn't be too surprising that people went for a fish you can't see.

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.

Sadly, von Braunhut also happened to be massively racist as he supplied weapons to the Ku Klux Klan and was a regular attendee at white supremacist meetings.

Wikimedia Commons

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

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.

A shame, really.