Frequently Asked Questions

	Q: Thank you so much for you Triops web-site. My son is doing a science project on triops and how the size of the tank will effect the size of the triops. You mention red dirt, is that sand or clay? If it is sand could he use "new" play sand? We are going to the pet store to see if they have coconut shells. I guess the real question is what material should we use in both tanks to maintain the projects integrity? Any insight you could share will be greatly appreciated! A: The red dirt that we have worked with is iron-rich but organically deprived soil from the deserts of the southwest. It really isn’t a clay, so I guess it is on the sandy side. We have tried play sand, but it is completely devoid of any organic material, so doesn’t work all that well. Recently, we have been trying a mix of “cactus soil” (which you can purchase at a nursery) and sand, and that seems to work well. The coconut shells was used by a colleague of mine, but I have never used it, so can’t vouch for its usefulness. You might do just as well with dirt from your yard, depending on where you live. Here in Ohio, the dirt is organically rich, and thus not much like the desert soil we find in Arizona and New Mexico. Nonetheless, it worked with adults when we tried it a few years back (it didn’t for the clam shrimp I am working on, so we now use strictly soil from New Mexico in our lab). Good luck with the experiments. The Triops size vs. container size should work well. Q: Sorry to disturb you, but I have a problem with my triop. This morning I have woken up to discover a huge red ball inside my triop's head. His head is bent down because on the back of his head half on the ball is bulging out. one friend has suggested that it was a blood clot. Can you tell me what it is and how to treat it? I only have that triop, and I don't want to lose him! A: Sorry to tell you, but Triops don't live very long. They live for only 2-6 weeks, on average. It sounds like what you are seeing is blood, and thus I would assume that your Triops is not long for this world. Often they will not make it through a molt, which might be what has happened in your case. I hope I am wrong. Q: I have found your Triops site very useful, but still have a question. My son received a Triop kit that came with a plastic container that is about 6 inches around and about 10 inches deep. The package we had of Triops hatched around 30 Triops and now that it has been 10 days, about 6 larger ones are left. My concern is that as these creatures grow there is noway they will all fit into this tiny jar. My son is attached to these creatures and I want to keep the last 6. Should I buy a bigger tank? Should I add dirt? How will the new water effect them? A: Yep, you should probably give them a larger environment. The container you have will likely lead to ONE large Triops as they cannibalize each other. Unfortunately, it is a bit tricky to set up the right environment for them. Water quality is important (and for this I don’t mean the kind of “quality” you and I think of for drinking water!). You can’t give them straight tap water, so you would need to get some distilled water (or some good mineral water, but that is expensive) at a store. If you go with distilled water without enough “solutes” (stuff dissolved in the water that they need to live), the Triops will die. Depending on where you live, you can likely just go into your backyard and get dirt from the garden that you can use. We use 16 oz of dirt per 10 gal aquarium, so depending on how big your new environment is will dictate how much dirt you will need. What I suggest is getting the distilled water + dirt, put it into whatever container you will use and then let it sit for 48 hrs. Then, put in ONE tadpole shrimp and see if the dirt/water combination works (let the shrimp be in there for at least one day before deciding it works). If it does, then pour the smaller container into the larger one. If not, then you will likely need to find some other dirt source. I wish I could point you to a place that sells the right kind of dirt, but so far I have been unable to find such a source! Q: Hi, my name is Josh and I have recently purchased some triops because my friend had some for a while and the neat little critters never ceased to amaze me. I'm building a small artificial pond and I was wondering that should I create small, shallow pools where the adults could not go, then the hatchlings that i get from the large numbers of eggs they produce (some of them will probably hatch as I have learned from your site) could possibly get inside these pools. this could protect them from the larger adults (predators) and allow them to grow up, just like a small fish in the wild. Am I crazy, or could this work? A: I don’t know how that will work. The “refuges” may indeed work, and as you say, they do work for fish. I would suggest the following modification, if you could work it in. Nauplii (the Triops larval stage) are MUCH less intelligent than fish larvae, and thus won’t “know” to go to your shallow refuges, I would imagine (at least I haven’t seen any sign they avoid the parents). However, they are strongly attracted to light. You might want to put in surface-level lights in your shallow areas to attract them. The next issue would be getting them OUT of the shallow areas once they get big enough! You might need to manually transfer them over when they reach a size you think would allow them to “make it” with the brethren? Q: I have 3 triops in my jar that are in the juvenile stage, and then about 20 that are still larvae. Should I isolate the larger ones until the smaller ones can develop? Also, the smaller ones don't seem to grow at all. The three large triops grew to twice their original size in a day. The little ones look the same. A: What you are observing is not uncommon – some larvae just do better than others. However, if you want to keep them ALL, you should certainly move the larger ones away from the smaller ones! The larger ones will certainly eat their smaller brethren if given a chance! However, the observation that the others aren’t growing well is already a bad sign. The larval stage is when most Triops die, so they may still die even if kept separate from the larger ones. One thing to note: you want to remove the LARGER Triops and leave the smaller ones in the same jar rather than the other way round. This is because moving them can be stressful, and if the smaller ones are already stressed (which it seems like they are), moving them might well kill them. Q: W hat do the triops eggs look like and how big are they? A: Triops eggs are about 300 microns in diameter. You can barely see them with the naked eye – they are MUCH smaller than the size of a pin head. They are generally light brown to off-white in color. Q: I'm a bit concerned about our office triop. For some reason, the shell that he has surrounding the front part of his body has suddenly, erupted and looks like it is prising itself away from his body. There is increasing swelling and redness, and also some very odd semetrical markings on the top part of his shell. A: One of the roughest parts of being an arthropod is the shedding of the exoskeleton. Without seeing it, I am guessing that your Triops is having that problem. The redness is hemoglobin (i.e., blood), so this guy sounds like he’s “not long for this world.” Sorry. Do note, though, that their average lifespan is about 1-2 months, so if he’s anywhere near this age, it might just be “his time.” Q: I am a 11 year old kid. I have triops of my very own but it got stuck in a seshell once and i tried to help it but i accidentally bent the top transparent section that looks like a shield. The triop was still young and i'm wondering if it will live or not. Can you tell me please and can you tell me if it will be alright??? A: The “shield” section (which is called the carapace) actually is vascularized (it has blood running through it). Thus, if you bent it a great deal, you could kill it. However, if you didn’t do it too much, it should be OK. There is really nothing you can do to fix it, so you will just have to see how it turned out. Q: If I were to use sand in the bottom of my triops tank so they can dig and bury their eggs, would sand from a beach be ok, if it was thoroughly rinsed first? A: Sand works fine for the tadpole shrimp. However, it is important to thoroughly clean the sand, to make sure no salt is in it or other impurities that would mess up the fresh water. Q: I bought a kid of triops longicaudatus, and I used a bigger tank for them. But problems seemed to come in a week: 1.do they need a lot of oxygen after they hatched? 2.how often should i change the water? 3.in a few days after they hatched (lots of small white dots swimming in the tank), i saw some bigger triops JUMPING in the tank. i don't know if they were bugs or real bigger triops. then after a few days, i saw a real triop-shaped thing SWIMMING in the tank. it had the fork tail. so i was more worried about the other JUMPING things in the tank. ARE THEY REALLY TRIOPS? A: Triops cannot jump, so if you are truly seeing “jumping” things, they aren’t Triops! Triops doesn’t need a lot of oxygen, so don’t worry too much about that. If they are spending most of their time “upside down” with their legs in the air on the surface of the water, that is a sign that they need more oxygen, and ti would be good to get an aquarium bubbler for your tank. You really don’t need to change the water as much as just keep adding water when it evaporates. Make sure you aren’t using straight tap water, as chlorine kills Triops. Distilled or aged (let sit for 4-7 days to get rid of the chlorine) tap water would be best. Q: My only triop is now always hiding behind a huge "tree-shape" decoration. and the water fleas were swimming REALLY HAPPILY in the middle of the tank. my tank is quite big (about 20 gallons), but why did the triop HIDE instead of catching the fleas to eat? The fleas were reproducing REALLY FAST. i could see about 50 water fleas jumping in the middle of the tank!! and the only triops was just hiding behind the "tree" and sometimes sticking on the glass. Why did the water fleas reproduce so fast and the triops didn't eat them? Why did the triops always HIDE behind things? Why did the triops sometimes stick on the glass instead of SWIMMING? Why did the triops seem to "escape" when i flashes a 60w light on it? Why did they hatch TOGETHER but only ONE grows bigger and eats the others? Why did the triops eat the others instead of the water fleas? I know there are lots of questions, but i have nothing to do except for making sure the LAST "GOOD" LIFE IN THE TANK won't die!! Q: I don’t have the answers to all of your questions, but I do know some of them. The water fleas are too small for the larger Triops to bother eating, so they don’t. The Triops don’t actually “hide” behind things. If they are back behind something, that must be due to some other issue. They like to dig, so their might be something behind this decoration that makes them feel like they are digging. Or, it could be some other reason. Triops swim around trying to sweep things into their legs to then grab and eat. Sometimes they will come up on the side of the tank, sometimes they will go along the top of the water, and other times they swim across the bottom. The Triops do have eyes, and thus the 60W bulb might just be too bright for them if it is shined in their eyes. With Triops, the ones that hatch earlier can grow to a larger size faster than the later hatching Triops. Size does matter in these guys, so the larger ones can easily eat the smaller ones, and then get even bigger. That usually ends up with ONE large guy who has eaten all the rest! Water fleas reproduce faster than Triops, which is why you might see a few in there one day and then dozens a day later, and then hundreds after that. Triops produce eggs that are laid of the bottom of the pool and then need to be dried out before they will hatch. Water fleas will produce babies that hatch right away and don’t need to be dried out (although they can produce those types of eggs also). OK, so that is all I can help you with. I wish you the best of luck with your Triops. Remember, Triops will only live for 4-6 weeks under the best conditions, so be prepared for the one you have to die in the not-too-distant future! It is just the natural way of things for these crustaceans. Q: Do you know of any links or references that will give me more information on the Notostraca?
	A: Since I started this page in 1997, there has been a dramatic increase in web sites regarding Triops. I searched on Google and found thousands sites! I've linked to two "general sites" (one a web ring) at the bottom of this page. MANY others are out there, so just search on Google, or whatever search engine you usually use.
	Q: Do you have any research suggestions for work on Triops that I and my students could undertake?
	A: Go to my "Suggestions for experiments useful for the class room" web page to see some ideas that might work for kids at home or in a class room setting.
	Q: What do the eggs of the Triops look like and how big are they? Do you have to put soil in the tank? If you do, could you just use potting soil, like the kind flowers grow in?
	A: Triops eggs are white to pinkish, and about 0.5 mm in diameter (when hydrated). The are “sticky” when laid, and so they often will have dirt, etc. stuck to their egg shells, making them REALLY hard to find in the dirt! One does not need to put dirt in the tank with the Triops , necessarily, but the Triops do better if dirt is added. I have had limited success with just dirt from the backyard, but this is not nearly as good as the “red” dirt from the deserts of the southwest. I have never tried potting soil, so I can tell you about that!

Fig. 6 - Triops in a small bowl.

If you’ve followed all these ideas, then the next thing to worry about is the water. DON’T use straight tap water, due to chlorine issues. Depending on where you live, you may or may not be able to let water “sit” and the chlorine to dissipate (some places are using “chloramines” in the water, which don’t dissipate!). In a “normal” chlorine area, you can let the water sit for ~ 4-7 days with an aerator to get rid of the chlorine, and then use that water for the Triops. In other areas, you should use distilled water, although straight distilled will also kill the Triops. We used distilled on a bed of soil to reintroduce the needed dissolved molecules in the water that the hatchlings need to survive. Bottom line, if the oxygen, light, temp issues are all OK, go with distilled water poured over local soil for a day, and then siphon the water into the Triops hatching tanks.

If that doesn’t work, maybe you got some bad Triops eggs???

includes the long forked "tail". When a site reports maximum sizes, are they including this tail bit? (I guess I'm wondering how mine compare, and I can't until I know what I should be comparing!)

	Q: Are Triops safe for elementary school children?
	A: Absolutely. As mentioned above, they cannot harm even the smallest person, so biting is not a problem. The only potential harm could come from drinking the water that they live in. Their water can have pretty high bacterial counts (bacteria is part of what they eat), and so drinking their water would not be wise. Neither would eating a meal after sticking one's hands in the water. There is no know disease transmitted by Triops , but it is always best to minimize one's contact with bacteria whenever possible.
	Q: Can one handle Triops?
	A: Triops are pretty hardy little creatures. They have a tough exoskeleton, and thus are reasonably protected from harm. However, it is unwise to attempt to pick up a small Triops because they are still susceptible to being crushed when they are juveniles. After they reach about ¾ - 1 inch in total length, they can be handled, but do handle them gently. They should not be left out of the water for more than a minute or so, or they will die. Also, Triops are quite fragile directly after molting, so it would be harmful to them to attempt to pick them up directly after they molt.
	Q: How would one best store any eggs produced by Triops?
	A: First, you would want to let the eggs sit in the water that they were produced in for some time (a week, at least). If the eggs dry out too quickly, they will die. After they are dry, it is best to keep them in a reasonably humid (over 50%, if possible), dark area. Some people suggest that keeping the eggs in water in a dark area is the best for hatching, but we always dry our eggs out and store them in boxes in the dark.
	Q: I just hatched out my second generation of Triops . I let the originals and in the original tank dry for about 90 days then added water to hatch out the second generation. Is it necessary to dry eggs, or will they hatch without a drying period?
	A: On average, eggs need to be dried. However, some small fraction can hatch without drying. This fraction can often be killed, if adults are present (the adults eat the young!). But if no adults are around, these “spontaneous hatchlings” can grow again to adulthood. It seems that different parents produce different numbers of these “spontaneous” eggs, with some of the Triops I’ve raised having quite a few “spontaneous” eggs, but most having none at all. Triops use a “bet hedging” strategy in egg production, producing eggs that will hatch out under different hydration regimes (e.g., some at the 1st hydration, some at the 2nd, etc.) so that all of their offspring don’t die if a pool were to dry too early. Bottom line: the eggs do NOT need to dry to hatch (in fact, we often keep eggs in vials of water in the dark), but do seem to hatch best if left for > 30 days before stimulating a hatching event.
	Q: I bought a kit and started growing my Triops , they seem to be doing just fine. I was wondering what they feed on once you run out of Triops food? Once the reach their max size can they be put in a fish tank with other small fish? and generally speaking with most fish, turtles and what not the bigger the aquiarium the bigger they get, does this apply for these guys too?
	A: I have fed them ground goldfish food (the sinking variety). I don't know how a full grown Triops would fare with a fish. Probably depends on the size of the fish. Size of container will affect Triops size also, but maximal size will not exceed about 1.5 inches, regardless of the size of the container.
	Q: Could you please tell me if I can put these Triops in my main aquarium with my fish?
	A: No, they will most likely be eaten by the fish!
	Q: Can Triops eat anything else apart from the dried food pellets provided as my 3cm triop has eaten all the babies in the tank!! Is it safe to hatch some more triops? We give him 2 food pellets a day.
	A: Triops is a scavenger and an opportunist, so it will eat most anything it can get its mandibles on! I have fed it sinking goldfish food, and it has done well on that. They will also eat each other, as you have seen, but can only do so if one is much bigger than the other. Thus, it is not wise to try to hatch out new Triops when others are already in the tank, because the newly hatched Triops will certainly be eaten by the larger Triops.
	Q: I recently brought Triops to replace my sea monkies that are no longer with us, and am amazed at the rate at which they grow, but I do have one question relating to this: I have one small tank the eggs were originally hatched in and a large one i kept my sea monkeys in, when the Triopsare getting to a certain size I am transferring them to a new tank so they have more room, but the strange thing is that despite having lots of the little nippers there is only ever one big one in the starter tank at a time. the little ones are not growing, yet as soon as I transfer the large one to a new tank almost overnight I find that one of the small ones has grown into a beast, I have checked that there are not larger ones hiding anywhere, which is quite easy as I am using white sand in the tanks - which works brilliantly. is what I am experiencing something like an 'alpha male' theory or do I just have space conscious Triops?
	A: I have noticed the same thing. We remove Triops from our larger aquaria because they eat the crustaceans that we are primarily interested in. It seems that when you remove a bunch, and seem to think none are left in the tank, you come back the next day and find another round of Triops that you are SURE you would have seen the day before! What I believe is happening is that the larger Triops are eating the smaller ones. When a smaller one gets to a certain size, it will be picked off by “Mr. Big,” thus keeping the smaller ones so small that you don’t notice them. When “Mr. Big” is removed, another one can then take his place, and the cycle continues (with the big one picking off the smaller ones). So, in a way it is like an “alpha male” scenario, but in this case the alpha is actually eating the betas!
	Q: I am a teacher and am trying to grow Triops in my class room. I bought a kit with eggs but can't seem to hatch any. I followed your directions exactly. HELP....! Your help will be appreciated.
	A: The main thing for hatching Triops is to keep the water warm, to have lots of light, and to have a high oxygen concentration (at least for hatching). I used a goose-neck lamp with a normal incandescent bulb (60+ watts) to add both the light and the temp. You want to keep the temp ~ 25-28 centigrade for hatching. The oxygen concentration can be initially heightened by pouring the water into the aquarium “vigorously” (like pouring it in from a height of 12+ inches). To keep the oxygen concentration up, you can use a standard aquarium aerator on low (if it isn’t a variable air pump, you can just tie a knot in the air hose to reduce air flow). These are “standard” techniques.
	Q: I've got 8 (out of a hatching of 10) Triops longicaudatus living in a shallow plastic tank which holds less than 2 litres. They're currently about 24 days old and all 8 are egg-bearing. I feed them quite a lot and they always have aquatic plants to munch on, which I think has kept cannibalism to a minimum. The largest are about 2" long, but that
	A: The length usually does not include the “forked tail,” but rather ends at the beginning of that tail (at what we call the end of the telson). Triops can get up to 2 inches to the telson, but that is pretty big! Most are about 1-1.5 inches at their maximum size.
	Q: I scooped out a small amount of egg-laden sand a week or so ago, along with a few tablespoons full of the water and left it in a lidless jar to dry out. When I checked yesterday, to see if it had dried out yet, it hadn't. Rather there were about ten larvae stitching around in the jar! I've decanted these to another small tank, and will continue to dry out the remaining eggs. Does this mean that this population will continue to produce some eggs that hatch spontaneously?
	A: The spontaneous hatches are controversial. Some people think that all branchiopods can produce two types of eggs: those that hatch right away (without drying) and those that need to be dried. I, too, have had “spontaneous” hatches in my lab. It is known that the eggs do not need to completely dry out (in fact, the best hatching is when the eggs are kept at a reasonably high level of relative humidity, including being immersed in water). The eggs are “looking” for a signal that a new pond filling event has occurred. Thus, if you add more water to a tank, or even by moving a tank and stirring up the water (which re-oxygenates the water), you may stimulate the eggs to hatch without going through “dormancy.” In this situation whether you consider this to be a “spontaneous” hatch kind of depends on your definition of “spontaneous”!
	Q: Where do you suggest I purchase the initial eggs? I'm very interested in hatching some of these, as I first read about them in a book by Craig Childs "The Secret Knowledge of Water."
	A: You can get Triops and Triops-related hatching/rearing equipment from several sites, many of which are listed on the side bars on this page. If you live in the United States, it would be best to get Triops longicaudatus (which is from the U.S.). In other parts of the world, it would be best to get species from your local area, both due to the better chances that they will live and because if you throw some out, they won't contaminate (or "invade") your area.
	Q: I have spent quite a few hours searching the web for help in setting up the best environment for my Triops. I would be really grateful of some advice on the following. Can I use grit or sand on the bottom of the tank, if so what should I use? Can I set up a filter under the grit? Should I aerate the water? Can I use plants in the tank. if so which plants? Can I use any thing to help keep the water clear?
	A: Triops actually "likes" dirt, so putting some on the bottom of your tank would help out, in some senses. They will actually consume dirt and digest off bacteria, etc. much like an earthworm. If the particle size is too large (e.g., sand) it won't help digestively, but it won't hurt either. If you decide on dirt, a filter wouldn't be helpful (and probably wouldn't work!), and also you might find that the tank becomes quite cloudy due to Triops digging behavior. However, the Triops will likely be quite happy! Plants are fine, but the Triops might eat smaller plants. There are only grasses in the natural tanks that we survey, so I can't advise you on which "aquarium plants" would be best. It would be an interesting experiment to try different ones! You really don't need a filter to keep the water clean. The natural pools in which Triops are found are quite dirty, and they seem to thrive under these conditions! The only thing that would be helpful is a small air stone (turned VERY low) to keep oxygen tension up, but even that isn't usually a problem (you can tell when it begins to be a problem because the tadpole shrimp become quite red and spend a LOT of time skimming the surface).
	Q: I am very interested in Triops and I was wondering if you know if two species of Triops can live together peacefully in the same tank. Such as Triops cancriformis and Triops longicaudatus. I want to see what they will do when put together, but I'm not sure if they will rip each other apart. They might even produce a hybrid, though, I can't count on that.
	A: Triops will rip each other apart, if given a chance. However, that is true within as well as between species. The main issue is a size difference - if you put a big Triops in with a small one, you can pretty much bet that the smaller will be gone the next day. I would imagine that the two species would coexist reasonably well as long as they didn't dramatically differ in size. The notion of hybridization would be interesting. I have no idea what to tell you would happen. It would be an interesting experiment!
	Q: If I grew a bunch of these Triops, can they be fed to any of my tropical fish? Will they get sick from eating a Triops?
	A: I don’t know how well a particular tropical fish may handle a tadpole shrimp. I don’t think they are poisonous in any way, but I haven’t actually heard about anyone testing that on any particular fish species.
	Q: I am giving a presentation at school on how to raise Triops. I have one thing to ask you. How do you pronounce Triops? Do you pronunce it tree-ops or try-ops?
	A: They are pronounced "try-ops."

Last Updated : 12/3/07
E-mail address : SCWeeks@uakron.edu.

Rearing Suggestions

Suggestions for experiments that can be conducted in the classroom

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The Clam Shrimp Information Page - Information, movies and pictures of Triops' close cousins!

Crustacea.net - Information about all known crustacea

The Large Branchiopod Bibliography - A list of many large branchiopod original publications from the 1800's to present (exclusive of papers on Artemia)

Triops and Friends Site Ring Ring Owner: Matthew Brennan and Jake Thomas Site: MJTW, The Triop Sanctuary