Normally I detest Internet phenomenas - I still don’t know what that ‘all your bases’ nonsense was about. So I apologise in advanced for having stooped so low as to contribute to the current internet fad. For your viewing pleasure, here are the first two ‘loltriops’.
Update: I guess that should be loltriopz.
The triops are just over 2 weeks old now, and as cute as a button. Tragically one hatchling died a few days ago, but the 7 that are remaining are doing well. Have a look at the photos.
(not actual size)
The Triops have started on solid food. They seemed un-interested in the food at first, but once the pellets swelled up with water the little darlings had a nibble. The instruction booklet says that after a week you can feed them tiny pieces of carrots and fish. I had some Australian Snapper fillets in the fridge for my dinner, so I snipped of a little piece and chopped it in to Triop sized morsels. Ive never tried snapper before, but it must be delicious - judging by the macabre feeding frenzy that ensued. Mental note: be careful about getting fingers in the water when they get a little bigger. Triops don’t want to be fed, they want to hunt. Can’t just suppress 65 million years of gut instinct!
Update: The snapper was indeed delicious.
My triops hatched today. I am now the proud father of four tiny crustaceans, and there are more on the way. They are barely visible - just little white specs, but I can make out a pair of swimmerets.
Apparently they double in size every day. They are about a millimeter in length at the moment, so by this time tomorrow they will be 2 millimeters long. They live about 60 days, so eventualy they will be 2 to the power of 60 millitmeters in length. Let’s see… thats 1,152,921,504,606,846,976 millimeters, 1,152,921,504,606,846 meters or 1,152,921,504,606 kilometers (*). Oh. My. God. We’re gonna need a bigger boat.
* For Americans, that’s 716,392,209,599 miles
A few years ago I had a tank of sea monkeys. If you are not familiar with sea monkeys - they are a kind of brine shrimp that has been marketed as a kids toy. They come as a little sachet of eggs with a plastic tank. You add water and they hatch within hours. It’s the most marvelous, stress-busting executive toy you can buy. I loved my sea monkeys so much, it inspired me to write an artificial life demo (for PC).
I was thinking of buying some more of these beasties, but I ended up purchasing triops, which are a similar type of instant life crustacean. They are a little bigger than sea monkeys, and carnivorous (sea monkeys just filter nutrients from the water)! Strangely though, they are a little harder to raise. The sea monkeys were almost self-sufficient; eventualy algae grew in the tank and you didn’t have to feed them any more. The triops are more fussy, they need water at a specific temperature, regular feeding and water changing.
The gravel and nutrient bag have been soaking over-night. Today I shall add the eggs to the water, and by tomorrow I should have a dozen or so hatchlings!