Triops Cancriformis......

[razer121]

So, some may have come across my other thread about triops....the more commen species that is! Anyway i happened to come across some eggs on everyones fav auction site and now i have 100 of these eggs.....they started of in some coral sand, i attempted only half of this in my own made detritus...well after 4 days of this it would seem all my triops are now dead....not to sure what happend, they got past the larva stage and grew to about 4mm in size, its ashame they died and i can only assume its my own fault and caused by the detritus which i made....im going to attempt it again of course! so.....i started of with tipping out the old water into a spare tub i had....just looked at it, about to throw it away and....

hehe!! just so happens there is aload of triops eggs!!! I've decided to try and pull as many out as i can see,

you have NO idea how long it took me to get these eggs out....ive managed to stop and start a number of times lol!! well exspect a update at some point...although dont hold out for it just yet, ive got to get this ditritus sussed first By the way...the last picture shows only a few of the eggs! there is loads........i will update when i dry them out

 

[three-fingers]

Good luck . You should have no trouble, judging by your success last time.

I find they always live longer and get larger at lower temperature, so try keep them in a cool place, don't let the lamp warm the tank too much if you want them to live long.

Reason I mention is the first time I raised T.cancriformis I made the mistake of thinking if the temperature was higher they would grow faster and therefore get bigger during their relatively long lifespan. What really happened was they just lived shorter.

The way IME to getting big T.cancriformis is to keep them in cool temperatures (it can get fairly cold for them in nature) and feeding them as frequently as possible, while keeping them in the largest tank possible. Obviously water quality is important too, easy enough for you.

Still, I've still never managed to get them as big as the record, despite large tanks, loads of food and perfect conditions. I think the commercially available ones are of a subspecies that doesn't get that large.

My last T.cancriformis died about a week ago, now I'm just trying to get the right temperature to hatch my Lepidurus apus eggs...surprisingly hard considering how cold it is outside, my house is too warm .

 

[razer121]

lol wow ive already got it wrong then! ive put the temp at a tosty 24degrees! going to drop that to 20.....i keep it high to help them hatch, seems as you have managed to get these guys to hatch do you happen to have any tips on the hatchin tank? seems as im used to hatching triops in a 1litre tank...is this to small to hatch out these guys then?

 

[three-fingers]

I always hatched them out in the main tank (usually a 5gal), just only with the water level at a couple of inches, with filter sponge squeezing added. Water I used for the hatching was always RO.

Sometimes I used flood plain sand collected from T.cancriformis habitat in Austria, that contained a lot of life in it and was pretty good. Cant get it anymore though, teachingmaterials.ac (where Dr. Erich Eder sold his triops eggs and related literature/videos) has been down for ages. So I'd use some gravel or sand from a mature aquarium.

I always put as much light as I had available over the tank to fuel algae growth.

I would just remove the heater totally. When I say cool I mean 15-18*C, it probably wont be that low during the day anyway if you put loads of light over it..

 

[razer121]

I always hatched them out in the main tank (usually a 5gal), just only with the water level at a couple of inches, with filter sponge squeezing added. Water I used for the hatching was always RO.

Sometimes I used flood plain sand collected from T.cancriformis habitat in Austria, that contained a lot of life in it and was pretty good. Cant get it anymore though, teachingmaterials.ac (where Dr. Erich Eder sold his triops eggs and related literature/videos) has been down for ages. So I'd use some gravel or sand from a mature aquarium.

I always put as much light as I had available over the tank to fuel algae growth.

I would just remove the heater totally. When I say cool I mean 15-18*C, it probably wont be that low during the day anyway if you put loads of light over it..

if i removed the heater it would drop pretty low lol, its very cold around here at the moment, i think i wilk just drop the heater down to 18 degrees at least this way it wont drop lower, did yous hatch fine in this temp??

 

[three-fingers]

Mine hatched fine at 13*C, they sometimes just take a few extra days to hatch.

The way I found this out is I keep accidentally hatching triops, somehow there are eggs in my big bag of playsand .

My room rarely drops below 15-18*C, but in my old room it could get down to around 10*C at the window and they dealt with that fine, though I added a heater because I was concerned about the other shrimp and fish in the tank.

 

[razer121]

well thats good news then! bad news for my newly hatched triops.T in the tank....he hatched 3 days ago and is in his own little tub, not to big about 5mm in size and growing pretty quick, the triops.C is also in his own little tub in the tank, should be intresting to see these 2 together, and thats only if the triops.T does not become food and can survive the lower temp!....wish me luck and exspect pictures today

 

[razer121]

have a look at these...

it took me AGES to get these lol, and there is still loads more to get!!!

 

[razer121]

i have 2!! and for once they have not eaten each other yet......exspect an update again soon

triops hatch on the 9th...pretty slow grower this one is

 

[Zhuria]

Razer, do you have any advice for identifying eggs in the substrate? I'm having a really hard time spotting the eggs in my beach sand. I know they must be in there but I don't know what I'm looking for! I'm drying it out now.

Have you dried eggs before? Did it take 2 weeks before you hatched them? I thought I read somewhere you could freeze them for a shorter amount of time.. Have you heard of that or tried it? 2 weeks is such a long time haha

Congrats on your 2 babies!

 

[razer121]

well, belive it or not, i moved the substrate to anouther tank, let it settle and then looked for eggs, ive no idea what triops.T eggs look like as ive never had the pleasure to get any! it may be a better idea for you to just dry out the sand then add the sand back to a tank, thats how most people do it, i just happend to spot the eggs by luck lol

 

[razer121]

quick one.......who thinks i should set up my 60 litre to accomodate the triops for a while?? im currently stuck on a tank for them....and it would fit the bill perfectly.....just wondered if you thought this would be "pointless" or not

 

[razer121]

now, it starts to get intrestnig 1 triops.c has been in the 60 litre sinc ei posted last, survived and although WAS the smaller of the 2 is now the bigger of the two! so just goes to show a larger tank helps them grow so im now going to get the other guy in there see how he fairs...heres a teaser pick of the very happy triops.c in the 60litre

you should see the trail in the sand...i will have to get a picture of it

 

[razer121]

you know i reckon that something to do with the food i feed them cause them to have the patterns they do...he looks like my other one but with the darker colours of course...he is 2cm take a wee looky at these

he has very different traits mind.....i will try get a vid uploaded ina bit

 

[razer121]

video! excuse the music..

http/s144.photobucket.com/albums/r175/razer12121/triops/triopC/?action=view&current=DSCF1576.flv