Last year I bought some Sea-Monkeys from the excellet Netfysh 
. This adventure into breeding prehistoric creatures ended in disaster. Only two of them hatched and then looked like Microsopic dots. These died within two days. Turns out I didn't read the instructions properly and I overfed them.
I bought some Triops off the Netfysh. These look much more promising. Apparently they grow quite big and eat each other. So here goes.
Day one. Lets get started!
Here they are - Impressive! Lets see what's in the pack. There's the instruction booklet, the pack containing the eggs, the foodstuff and even a dinky little temperature guage. Look at those pictures of Tranasorous Rex! Wow Triops must be related to them. Right lets have a closer look at that instruction booklet:
| Distilled water eh? I've got some Caledonian Still water fresh from the vast highland estates of Laird Eddie McStormont: |
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| Disaster! Cut a 2inch hole in the top eh? Simple. Got an ultra razor sharp craft knife to do this properly. As soon as I nicked it, crack! The plastic split right down the middle. Luckily the top is just intact enough to screw it onto the top. As you can see it's a right mess. |
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Right here we go. I've filled it with pure water and apparently I have to leave it to stand for 3hours before adding the eggs. I'll just pop it on the window ledge in direct sunlight.
Three hours later:
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Added eggs |
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They take 24hours to hatch, so by this time tomorrow we should be able to see some of the monsters swimming around.
Day two. Had a quick look at the tank this morning. Nothing to report, but then it has only been 12hours. The temperature fluctuates between 74-80F so it should be an ideal environment for the Triops.
It's now been 24hours since the eggs were hatched. Earlier excitement turned to nothing when a baby Triop was found to be a smudge on the glass bowl.
As the sun goes down I've put the Triops under an atifical lamp. Hopefully this will stir them into life.
Had a look at them this morning, even after spending all night under a lamp, I still couldn't see any of the little suckers. Lovely sunny day this morning so I moved them from the desk to the window ledge.
Checked back around miday - still nothing. My only worry now is that they may be getting too hot. The temperature was upto 84F. Trust me to pick the only bank holiday weekend when we have a heatwave to hatch my Triops. To give you an idea how sunny it way I even cleaned my car today.
As the evening draws in still no activity in the Triops jar. This whole project is beginning to be as sucessful as the Sea Monkeys last year. Anyway I'll switch the web cam on just incase anything happens. Tommorrow I'll go and buy the biggest magnifying glass I can find - maybe they're invisible to the naked eye?
Before going to bed I fed them. One green pellet and one brown pellet as per the instructions
Day 4. Checked this morning quickly before leaving for work and there were no signs of life in the tank. It looked like it was going to be a fairly warm day today, but rather than gamble on the British weather I left the lamp on.
It's alive! Got back this evening and there are atleast two lifeforms swimming around in the tank. They are clearly visible to the naked eye and look like tadpoles. Unfotunately I was busy at work today and didn't get time to pop out to get a magnifying glass. I'll see if I can capture them on the webcam.
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Day 5. Got home this evening, and there were three lifeforms (which I hope are Triops) frolicking in the tank. Unbelievabley just as the instructions say they have doubled in size overnight.
I set up the web cam to get some good pics of them, but they just didn't want to play. They seem to spend most of the time at the bottom of the tank foraging around in the debris. In the end I got bored of waiting for them to perform. Here's the best one capture I got this evening:
Day 6. Got home late this evening, so no time to set up any screen captures. Been protecting our Internet email gateways against the "ILOVEYOU" virus. Amusing to read the number of Blue Chip companies who got caught.
Back to the Triops. There are 3 of them and they have doubled in size again. One is quite big, almost half an inch. Fed them one brown and one green pellet each as per the instructions. I'll try and sort some pics out tomorrow night.
Day 7. Tony Blair takes a hammering in the polls. Livingstone as Mayor should be enough to ruin the Labour Party :-) The Triops have grown again. There are now two largish ones and a monster in the tank. No time for screen shots tonight. It's the weekend tomorrow so I'll try and set up some good pics. Browsing other sites in the Triops web ring there is some stunning camera work. May be time to buy a digital camera...
Day 8. Had a look at them early this morning. Can't quite believe how big they've grown. I think there's three in the tank. It's getting difficult to tell beacuse the water is getting a little bit murky and the skins that they've shed can easily be mistaken for Triops. Fed them one brown and one green pellet each.
I'm determined to get some good stills and mpegs later on today. Unfortunately the murky water, concave and refelective nature of the plastic cheap tank don't help. Maybe a real goldfish bowl would help. Stay tuned and I'll have a go at some pics later.
Day 9. No diary entry today. Glorious sunny weather so the computer didn't get a look in.
Day 10. Feeding the Triops twice a day now. They must be hungry because they keep chasing eachother around the tank. Violence and murder will probably follow if I don't feed them enough. They are quite big now. Within the next few days I'll try and change the murky brown water for some clean, add the sand and get some nice new piccies.
Day 11. Bit lacking in the reporting today. The tank has got noticibly darker. The Three Triops are still alive
Day 12. As you can see the tank is really dark now:
I've bought some more water and a fish catcher so hopefully I'll be able to transfer them to some clean water tomorrow. I nipped down Pet City to get a goldfish bowl, but the smallest they had was 8litres.
The triops are now pretty big. They move around the tank quite quickly. Generally they keep out of each others way. But when they come across eachother it gets rather unpleasant. I haven't managed to get any captures of them fighting yet. Mainly due to the murkey water. By placing an artificial lamp close by I managed to get some okay captures despite the murky water.
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Day 13. Water is now a murky green. Can't really sea much through it.
Day 14. The water is so thick you can't see anything through it. I decided to change them to fresh water. I tipped most of the water out into another container then carefully strained the Triops into a fish net, which I quickly placed into fresh water. The Triops quickly swam out unharmed. Unfortunately I missed one! Only two Triops swam out. One was left gasping for air in the empty original container. Emergency action saved his as I scooped him up and put him with his buddies.
I rinsed out the old container, put sand and fresh water in it. I then poured the Triops back in. They seem to be none their worse for my rough handling. At least I didn't batter one to death accidently with a spoon like Sinjy when he tried this. Looks like they are enjoying the fresh water and sand.
I hope they survive the night...
Day 15. The Triops survived the night and look to be okay to me. With the clean water I was able to get some good screen captures. One is just over 1Meg, but it shows a Triop digging in the sand. Well worth the download.
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Day 16. The Triops survived the night and look to be okay to me. With the clean water I was able to get some good screen captures. One is just over 1Meg, but it shows a Triop digging in the sand. Well worth the download.
Day 17. With the clean water you can see the skeletons that the Triops shed quite clearly. They are so fine that I couldn't pic them up on the web cam :-(
Day 18. The water has started to turn green again. When I got home the Triops were so hungry that they were eating the skeleton. Fed them a bumper slap up meal of those horrible smelling pellets.
Day 19. Water is really green now. Having trouble seeing the Triops again. There's still three of them. they are all roughly the same size so none of them have attacked eachother yet. They've also got a bit bigger. I'll try and change the water again soon and get some snacks of the monsters.
Day 20. The water is so dark now I can't really make anything out in the tank. Not sure how many Triopsare in there. All you can make out is the ocasional large shadowly shape.
Day 21. No idea if they are still alive. The food keeps disappearing so something is swimming around in The Deep.
Day 22. Oooops forgot to feed them in the morning. I hope they haven't turned on each other. Fed them a big snack in the evening to make up for it.
Day 23. Worried because the water is so dark I can't see any of the Triops. I tipped most of the water away down the toilet. Using a fish net just in case one of the Triops was accidently flushed down the toilet to the sewer where it lived on radioactive waste for years before emerging to terorise the population of a small Southern town.
Becasue of the sand I couldn't tip away all the green water. Tipped away most of it and added clean water. Managed to get some stunning screen captures. The Triops are now huge!
Day 24. Despite having changed most the of the water yesterday, today it is noticably darker.
Day 25. Water is now a thick pea green. You can still make out the Triops swimming around in there.
Day 26. I am now feeding them two big meals a day. I think the Triops may have reached critical mass and won't get any bigger.
Day 27. The water is so thick and green you can't see through it. It's impossible to tell how many Triops are alive, but I think they are all still there.
Day 28. Feeding time with the Triops resembles a scene from pirahna. As soon as the food is added they surface with there little arms working overtime. In a few seconds it's all gone.
Day 29. Today a the top of the tank was a perfect skeleton that a Triop had shed. I managed to get a pretty good screen capture of it.
In the interests of science I fished it out with a spoon for a closer look:
Is this just plain scary or what? This one measured 65mm from tip of antenna to tail. And theres three monstors just like this in the tank. If they grow much bigger I'll have to feed them next doors cat.
Day 30. After the last skeleton, today there's lots of skeleton debris floating at the top of the tank. Looks like the triops have been munching on there own bones.
Day 31. It must be time to change the water again. I just can't see anything in the tank. I don't want to miss anything when they start to eat eachother :-)
Day 32. Feed them and the food goes within seconds.
Day 33. Water is so murky you can't make out anything unless the Triops swim right up to the sides of the container.
Day 34. 1st of June and it's raining. Who would live in England eh? Hope the poor weather doesn't effect the Triops.
Day 35. I am beginning to fear for my poor Triops. I can only now make out two in the tank at most. There may still be three but with the water being so dark I can only ever make out two at a time.
Day 36. Still can only see two. Because they look the same and are the same sizes it's hard to tell if I'm seeing the same two.
Day 37. Didn't see any Triops today, but the food is still being eaten. There must be something alive in that tank.
Day 38. Managed to catch site of three Triops early morning today. One of them didn't look too healthy and was giving it the dying fly upside down at the bottom of the tank. He may not last the day.
Day 39. Water is to think green and horrible to see if that Triop was eaten alive by his mates. I may as well risk changing the water. As soon as I remember to buy some mor Caledonian spring water I'll sort them out.
Disaster! I got home this evening and there was no sign of life in the tank. Swirling the water round revealed dark objects floating at the bottom of the tank in the sand. I rushed to the toilet and poured some water off. Sure enough there were three dead Triops at the bottom of the tank :-(
I am trying to work out what happened. The bodies all look fairly intact, no obvious signs of fighting or large bites taken in eachother. This mornings food had gone from the surface of the water. Maybe the food was bad? Maybe they died of old age? Perhaps the water was just to dirty for them to live in and suffocated. Could a fly or other insect have landed in the water and been eaten posioning them? It will remain a mystery.
Seens the bodies were intact I fished them out and took a few final screen shots.
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