# new triops project-im back!



## yannis2307 (Apr 23, 2012)

hey so first of all i havent been quite online during may and summer because of exams and then vacation...now that im back ill try to be as online as my everyday routine can let me...
So! lets get to it!
a week ago or so i was in boston.i went on a trip with my father, he had a conference and he took me to show me the universities since im considering to go to berklee there. anyway, we went to some universities and some stores, and then i saw this triops smithsonian kit in a store.. i thought i could give it a try, so since it wasnt so expensive, i bought it. it contains a tank, i suspect its not ideal since i believe its less than a gallon, and adult triops need 2-4 litres (around 1-2.5 gallons). also the food is so limited i suspect its gonna last less than a month if this keeps going for a month. when i came back to greece, i got to set it up, so here's a blog that will be constantly updating as long as this project will be going on:

Day 1:
so i washed the tank with bottle water. it was the closest to distilled (what kit recommended) that i had and since its out of conversation to fit a filter in the tank i had to choose that. then i filled it with the sand the kit had. its a white sort of sand, seems like totally not natural...anyway, after cleaning the sand a bit, i filled it up with water. then i opened the bag labeled ''triops eggs'' and poured half of it, as recommended, into the tank. i gotta say, the eggs were in a dried moss like thing which when the eggs fell down still floated in the surface. anyway i got the tank to my room and put it under a desk lamp. its the only way to keep it warm. im telling you, the aquarium is like 1cm(wide)x6cm(deep)x8cm(long). sth like that.thats for today.

Day 2:
well today i see no movement. but i am patient since the kit said 2-4 days or up to a week if the conditions arent good. the moss like thing floatin on top is worrying me, but i dont want to remove it cause im afraid the triops will have no place to dwell around but mostly because i think it may have use as food since he kit describes it as a nutrient rich enviroment.

Day 3:
There it is! i woke up to a white tiny spec which is clearly a triops! is awesome, it has those foot like things on the side that go up and down in a wave formation like the sea monkeys do. in the afternoon, i noticed another one! this one's smaller. like a half of the other. i think its awkward that the kit says the triops will spend more time dwelling around at the bottom than free swimming or going to the surface. well, my two triops just drool around in the mid column or wander between the dried moss......even later, around 8 pm, i think i saw another one hatch! it was emerging from a white thing at the bottom that lef parts on the little guy which then gradually fell off him. the first guy is bigger now. he is around 20 mm. the third is like the second when i noticed him first. today i decided to feed them so i crushed up a pellet of the food the kit had and threw it in. now that ive seen my triops wander around the moss, im afraid ill get one by accident if i get the moss out with a net. so as i was observing, i gradually started seeing more and more of them, until i finally counted 6. the other ones are smaller than the first and the second. today i learned that you got to be patient when looking for your triops since it needs a bit of time to notice then when at hatchling state.

Day 4:
woke up and went straight to the triops tank. after some time of searching, i noticed the two little guys. they were drooling around. however, what i found worrying is that i saw no one else. none. only them two.i noticed once that the second one was doing circles you know like a fight plane all the way up until you get to where you started.i fed them today too.

Update #1:
hey guys if you can also help me with some things like if i should take out the moss or any suggestions please tell me 

Day 5:
Wow! the two little guys have become really big, at least much bigger than they were yesterday. now the big one is around 40-50 mm and the small one around30 mm. they are almost double the size they had two days ago! now i see them digging on the substrate all the time...at least they got their natural behavior, i was getting a bit worried about them doodling around in mid column. im pretty sure now the guys are the only left, at least until another egg hatches, if it does...im also pretty sure that i have the longicaudatus species, because ive read that cancriformis would be like half a cm in a week and those guys are already half a cm in two days!

Update #2

Day 6: today i observed the triops tank a little bit too. the bigger guy is almost 70mm and the small one around 40mm.now they're big enough for me to see them without searching, even from 2-3 meters away (thats close to 8-9 feet). A thingy like an egg with two feet (really tiny, ≈5mm) that moves spasmodically has appeared. i dont know if i should remove it. I've never seen it interact or be close to the triops, but still im worried.

Day 7:
Today at noon when i came back from school i saw that the two guys are okay, which was quite comforting. a week and still going. I've also noticed that the moving-egg-like thingies that now i know that are harmless crustaceans have multiplied and are now 4-5.


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## yannis2307 (Apr 23, 2012)

Question: the are tiny bal like thingies in the triops aquarium. they have two legs on the front and they move spasmodically.they are round, non transparent and about 5 mm long. i started seeing one a couple of days ago and now they are 3-5... please tell me if they are harmful...


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## Harliquin (Aug 12, 2012)

What are triops?


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## yannis2307 (Apr 23, 2012)

tiny crustaceans that are supposed to have been living on the earth 200 million years now-look up some pictures!


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## Harliquin (Aug 12, 2012)

They look really cool!! Where can i get a kit?


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## yannis2307 (Apr 23, 2012)

i dont know i actually got the smithsonian kit from harvard's library in boston but im sure there are elsewhere too...try to find a store with ''cool'' invention kits or ''build your own'' kits and i suppose it may have them. you can also purchase eggs online(they are sold in eggs, both online and in the kits, which you then put into an aquarium and some hatch)


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## BettaGuy (May 6, 2012)

The tiny things that you see swimming around in there are not harmfull to your triop. They are also ancient crustations and will most likely get eaten by your triops. I hope you have more luck with your triops than me.


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## yannis2307 (Apr 23, 2012)

thanks for the answer bettaguy! i was really getting worried that they were some kind of bugs or even mosquito larvae...why, what happened to your triops?


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