My Triops

[TriopsLaura]

Day 1: Saturday 10th November 2007

The Delivery man came with my nice shiny purple box from “IWantOneOfThose.com” Straight away I was eager to get it all started, so M opened the box and got everything out, the pack included…
• Gravel
• Eggs + nutrients in 1 bag
• 2 “stirrers”
• 1 bag of food pellets
• Instruction book

The instructions told us we needed spring water NOT tap water, so off we went to Asda. Once we returned home we put the gravel in a cup of spring water to soak as per the instructions, I then rinsed out the Aquarium with more bottled spring water. We then went out for tea and later on returned, watched a film and then after the gravel had been soaking for about 6 hours, I filled the aquarium up with the bottled water and placed the thermometer on the side of the tank and also put the gravel into the Aquarium, the tank was now ready to go, but I had a problem… The water wasn’t warm enough for the Triops, so I had to find a way of keeping the Aquarium at the right temperature… So I placed my halogen lamp over the aquarium, and left it over night…

Day 2: Sunday 11th November 2007

In the morning when I woke up, I checked the water temperature and it was perfect for the Triops, so in the egg/nutrient mixture went, I then stirred the water as per the instructions… at this point it just looks like water with lots of bits in it.
I knew nothing was going to happen for a day or two so I left the aquarium for the rest of the day and went out for dinner …
Until tomorrow…

Day 3: Monday 12th November 2007

When Monday morning came they had started to hatch, there were lots of tiny little dots swimming about, and at this point the lamp is still on the “dots” as they need light and heat to grow nice and big!
Even though they are still only dots they are amazing to watch…

Day 4: Tuesday 13th November 2007

I have decided to turn the lamp off during the night as it’s too bright and dangerous to leave it on 24 hours a day, but that doesn’t seem to bother the little dudes as they grew loads overnight, I was really shocked to see them this morning almost twice as big as they were yesterday, can almost see their shape now!
I haven’t started to feed them the pellets that were supplied with them just yet, as the eggs are still hatching, there are more and more babies every day…

Day 5: Wednesday 14th November 2007

It’s now Wednesday, and more eggs are hatching, must have about 20 now, some of the earlier hatched ones are getting quite big, I can see their legs moving in detail now, and see their little tails developing, Last night when I checked on them before I went to bed I was watching one Triops that was dancing about in a rather strange manner, so I continued to watch him for a few seconds, and the next thing, he appeared to split in two… he had just shed his skeleton (real word for it…ecdysis)! I watched some videos on youtube yesterday and I watched an adult one do it, but I didn’t realise they did that all through their life… it was pretty amazing…
I really want them to grow big enough to be seen clearly on a photo! Im getting quite attached to these little dudes!

Day 6: Thursday 15th November 2007

Not much has changed today, the Triops are still growing bigger each day, but still just blobs when I try to take a picture haha!
I fed them the pellets for the first time tonight, I took 4 of each coloured pellet (2 colours) and crushed them up, as the instructions tell you too, and put it in the tank…
The Triops were straight on it! It was funny to watch, because the pellets absorbed the water and they grew to 3 times the size, and they were like twice the size of the Triops by this point, so the Triops had hold of this giant crumb that was bigger than they n they were trying to eat it lol!!
Needless to say... They didn’t eat it all; there is still a lot of the food left over lol

Day 7: Friday 16th November 2007

I woke up this morning and checked on the lil dudes, and there are no longer lots of babies in the tank, I think the cannibal side of the bigger Triops has come out... as the smaller weaker ones have gone missing… lol
There are still about 7 left though… 2 are big and beefy (the most likely culprits) and 2 are long and skinny… (More likely to be eaten soon enough lol) and the others are still a bit small.
They are getting named tonight! Haha! My favourite one is being called Blinky… haha the biggest meanest looking Triops in the aquarium lol!!
Hopefully now they are on proper food they will grow a lot faster and ill be able to get some pictures by Monday… HOPEFULLY lol

Day 10: Monday 19th November 2007

Over the weekend the Triops have grown enough to be photographed… if they didn’t move so fast it’d be a damn site easier lol!! The big ones have started getting a bit too “playful” for the littler ones… I’ve got another tank at home, so I think I may split them in half in the hope that more will survive that way… I just need to find some sand from somewhere, the 2 fish shops I been in didn’t have any… odd I thought!
But anyway, they are on pellets everyday now, hopefully by the end of this week they will be fully grown and I can get a half decent picture lol!

Day 11: Tuesday 20th November 2007

Well, day 11 is here… I have split the Triops up, as the bigger ones were getting a little “playful” and knocking the smaller ones around a bit, so half the Triops are in the aquarium still, and half are in my “hamster carry case” lol!
The bigger one seems to love the “carry case” even though there are no stones or sand yet… still need to find some… over night 2 of the Triops in the carry case shed their skeletons… I WILL get one on video doing it lol! They seem to be much happier now they have more space to themselves, not to mention more food lol

Day 12: Wednesday 21st November

Well, last night all my little Triops died *cries* I cleaned out their tank, and put them all into the carry case then thought “why don’t I put them in the proper fish tank I have” so I cleaned it out with warm water and disinfectant, then rinsed it out with bottled water, then put 3 bottles of water in the tank, left it while I went out… came home 5 hours later and it was perfect temperature… so I put the carry case into the glass tank to let the water equalise so it wasn’t too much of a shock if the water was a slightly different temperature…

I then turned off the lamp and went to bed… I woke this morning to find they were all dead… every one of the Triops and 1 of the long ‘things’ The glass tank much have got too cold for them. So I start again…



Room temperature water into the plastic aquarium, add egg’s and put 1 survivor into tank…

Its now day 2 of the MK2 Triops experiment, they hatched lastnight (within 24 hours of being in the aquarium thing)

Laura

 

[three-fingers]

so I put the carry case into the glass tank to let the water equalise so it wasn’t too much of a shock if the water was a slightly different temperature…

Trouble was you never acclimatised them properly, you only acclimatised them to the new temperature (which doesn't matter much to Triops, they live in relativity small pools and the water temperature can fluctuate pretty fast relativity significantly).

What you should have done is slowly mixed the water in the two tanks over about an hour . Even if you used the same brand of bottled water, the water chemistry in the tank will have changed a lot since you added it.

The glass tank much have got too cold for them.

Unless your room drops down to below 15 degrees Celcius at night, it's very unlikely. Triops longicaudatus perfectly capable of dealing with chilly north American autumn nights . It will just have been that they weren't acclimatised properly.

Twas a good read, and good luck with mk 2 (though if the 'survivor' lives much longer, he will certainly eat any baby triops! ).

The bigger tank was a very good idea too. I would personally recommend the use of a small air powered sponge filter if you can get one, otherwise the water in the tank will turn very cloudy green, resembling pea soup (and you'd be talking 50% daily water changes to maintain any visibility).

 

[kribensis12]

By all the food that i saw in there, i would think tht they died from some type of water chemistry issue.

 

[TriopsLaura]

cheers for your help three fingers, much appreciated.

But i never actually put them into the new tanks water... they were in their own water, in a carrycase, in the tank...

 

[TriopsLaura]

Triops Mk2 are going strong still...

On thursday night my "moon simulator" stick and click lights arrived, so i put them on my shelves

Last night i put them into my RedBull ice bucket (there's still about 18 of them so the aquarium was getting very cramped) with a layer of sand in the bottom and they absolutely love it!!! they spend all their time digging about in it, its well funny haha!

I know the water is a little dirty at the moment, im "cleaning them out" tonight, of course when i say cleaning them out, i mean taking 1 cup of dirty for 1 cup of spring water

 

[kribensis12]

You might want to take out a little bit more than that.

 

[the_evil_duboisi]

Do you like filter the water? Or are they better off without them? And do they need water changes?

 

[kribensis12]

Yes, it is probably better to have a filter( maybe a sponge filter). Water changes would help also. They breathe with gill's so the water must be aireated, and clean.

 

[TriopsLaura]

i didnt mean just one cup.... i ment take one cup out, one clean cup in, and again, and again, till its clean...

I havent got a filter for them, and im not getting one

 

[kribensis12]

i didnt mean just one cup.... i ment take one cup out, one clean cup in, and again, and again, till its clean...

I havent got a filter for them, and im not getting one

Okay, i was just sainyg like take a piece of pvc pipe, stick it in some styrofoam( polyfiber, term's depend on where you live), and put a air stone in the pvc pipe, adn whala! you ahve a filter. But you dont HAVE to have one if you dont want one. Now i get what you mena when you say one cup. Do you by any chance dechlorinate the water?

 

[TriopsLaura]

nah i just buy bottled water from the supermarket

 

[kribensis12]

That works.

 

[fall-apart-dave]

How big do they end up growing?

 

[TriopsLaura]

mine are about an inch now, aparently they can grown to double that

One died lastnight im guessing natural causes cos the other 19 or so seem fine, poor lil bugger

RIP lil dude

 

[three-fingers]

Looks like it's going well . Really cool lighting there.

You'll probably find you'll have a big die-off soon, and one or two that will live for ages .

Carapace length on T.longicaudatus typically reaches 1". Overall they get little over 2". T.cancriformis (one of the two other species you can buy) can reach 4" (excluding the two tail bits, cadual furca) and T.numidicus can reach this size :