Getting started with triops, the closest thing I've seen to a trilobite

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Tuesday, October 12th, 2021. I've always had a fascination for trilobites, so when a friend of mine tagged me on Facebook about a living animal called a triop, I was fascinated. No, they're not trilobites, not even related, but they are an ancient type of animal, going back 300 million years, long before the dinosaurs. They look kind of like a horseshoe crab, and they're actually a kind of shrimp.

I got the kit delivered yesterday, and started reading the instructions right away. It's for ages seven and up, so I immediately turned into an impatient kid. But I've been a grownup for quite a while now, so I took a deep breath, and started reading the little booklet that came with it, and found out that a couple of other things were needed for this all to work properly, that is, distilled water, and a mild heat source.


The distilled water I picked up this morning at the grocery store this morning, and I found a clamp-on light fixture in my garage which I haven't used for years. I also found a 40-watt incandescent bulb by scrounging around through the light bulbs I have. Modern bulbs don't give off heat, but old-fashioned ones do, so this was perfect. I did the set up in my workout room, where I could leave the light on all of the time, and it wouldn't bother me.


It's been many years since I've taken care of fish, but I remember things like "room temperature water" is actually quite cold for tropical fish, and also the necessity of cleanliness. No cleaning stuff out with soap, just rinse with the distilled water.

The water temperature had to be 80 degrees F to add the eggs, so I set up the light and waited, checking back just like a little kid, over and over and over. I must have lost the lid when I was opening up the package, so I found a piece of plastic that was the right size and punched some air holes in it. The triops won't mind.


You dump the eggs in and swirl them around, using the little plastic thingee (I forget what they called it in the booklet) to stir it all around, and then to gently rinse the sides.


According to the instructions, they hatch in about two days or so, so now all I gotta do is wait. I was never good at waiting when I was a little kid, and I really never got good at it. Have they hatched yet? How about now?

It's only been about an hour, so that's all I can say right now, but I'll come back and update this blog post, and let you know how this little Triassic World is doing!



Update: Day two (Thursday) - Tiny little critters are swimming around!


Update: Day three (Friday) - they're very tiny, but they're alive! They hatched on day two (yesterday), and today I skimmed a little bit of the detritus off of the top, put it in a little bit of aluminium foil and threw it in the trash. On Monday I'll start feeding them.


Update: Evening three (Friday) - These little critters are light beige, and very, very tiny, and they show up best with a black background, so I just cut a small piece of black paper that I found in the garage and taped it onto the back. Hopefully they will be inspired to grow by looking at the trilobite fossil!


Update: Day Four (Saturday) - I decided to remove the black background, I just preferred the look of the aquarium without it. Here's what it looks like in the corner of my workout room:


The triops are keeping an eye on me while I exercise. One and two, and one and two! I've counted about half a dozen mini-cheerleaders in the tank today.

Update: Monday morning. First feeding day! The instructions say "one pinch per adult" and I've counted at least four that have made it this far. I'm not exactly sure what they mean by a pinch, but I've overfed goldfish before, I know that it's all too easy to "kill with kindness" by overfeeding, so I did three pinches. Next feeding day is Thursday.



Update: Wednesday afternoon. I can see a tail on one of them today, and I have named her "Scorpius". Triops reproduce by parthenogenesis, and they all lay eggs, so it’s kind of like they’re all females. Life finds a way.



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