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Triops Tank

  • Thread starter elgecko
  • Start date
  • #41
Sorry to hear that Steve, I use Kent Iodine in concentrate of 1 drop per 5 gallons of R/O water for my Vampire crabs (completely freshwater). I have a few pieces of busted up scallop shell in the gravel to raise the Ph and put some minerals in it for their exoskeleton.

If you look at hermit crab water conditioner it contains a very small amount of Iodine, this is beneficial to molting in crustaceans. The guy who sold me the VCs also uses the Iodine in his shrimp and crayfish breeding setups. I am using the ratio he suggests for freshwater crustaceans NOT what is listed on the bottle which is geared for saltwater tanks. I have already had at least one male crab molt successfully using this water. I thought it was a dead crab until a couple weeks later I saw both male and female crabs in their tank at the same time.
 
  • #42
Thanks for the info.

I did some research on the Kent Iodine and found other shrimp keepers using it and saying they where having healthier freshwater shrimp from it. It "may" be helping or the remaining three are strong ones and can bust out of their skin.

They are about an inch long now.

This ones holding onto some pellet food and eating it.
triops-013.jpg


You can see the eggs through the carapace.
triops-015-1.jpg


What R U looking at!
triops-031.jpg


They are not green yet. The seller says it takes about 30 days for them to start showing the green color. They are 25 days old now.
 
  • #43
Fantastic! Eggs and hopefully a guaranteed next generation.
 
  • #44
Well my try at Triops is not going well at all.

Tuesday 8/24/10 when I checked on the 3 I had left. I saw 1 of the Triops chomping on a dead 1. I'm not sure if it was cannibalism / old age / or shedding problem. Leaning to shedding problem.

Today Thursday 8/26/10. I had another dead Triops in the tank. That leaves me down to 1. Looks like this one died while trying to shed. Half the shell was off, and the rest still stuck to it.

I was lazy when I started to add the Iodine (8/18/10) and left the charcoal in the filter. Pulled that out of the filter tonight.
Maybe the charcoal is not a good thing to have with them anyway. It also has some other stone for ammonia block. Anyway it is now removed.

swords, also wondering about what you said about having a busted up shell added to the gravel. I have a whole bag of coral sand or something like that up in the attic from my salt water tank days. Since it's still in the bag I do not think I have used it. I'm not sure if I did rinse it, it would be ok since it would have some salt in it if I did use it. Not that their would be much at all for the small amount of gravel I would use.
I may have to crawl up there and get a cup full.

Hopefully my next try will be better. When I originally placed the Triops in the tank, 22 of them, I was hoping to have at least 10 large Triops in the tank. Having 1 in the tank looks awful empty.
 
  • #45
i tried growing these once... it went well for a while. mine never got bigger than a centimeter. they loved the sea monkey food i gave them. what is that stuff made out of anyways?
 
  • #46
Sorry to hear that Steve, I would imagine on your next try if you had the 1 drop per 5 gallons of Iodine since the start you might have better luck. As well as steadily increasing the water hardness as they age to simulate the seasonal pool drying up with a steady rise in mineral concentration as the water "evaporates".

I do have some scallop shell pieces in my crab water pools but I'm not sure how much I should use without going overboard so I only have about three or four 1/2" x 1/2" pieces in each quart sized water dish. I put a small pinch of T-rex calcium sand into a cup of water and the PH shot up to over 9 so I didn't use the sand.
 
  • #47
Cool! I love triops! I used to raise them, but right now my tanks are occupied by other things. I even bought other types of Triops and I haven't hatched them. Great pics! I could never get such nice pics with my hyper Triops! xD!
 
  • #48
Thanks for the comment on the pics.

Well it's a sad day today. At 33 days old the last Triops has died.
Looking at it, it seems to be the same problem that has plagued me since I moved them to the 10 gallon tank, not being able to shed. Half the shell was still sticking to the lifeless Triops.

I tried adding Iodine, (started 8/18/10) which may have helped, but me leaving the charcoal in the filter at first when adding the Iodine might have been removing it from the water anyway. I did not remove the charcoal from the filter till 8/26/10.

I think the next attempt I'm going to remove the decorative stone I have in the tank in case it's slowly releasing something into the water. I'm also going to take out the driftwood. Not sure removing these items will help, but something certainly is off in the tank.

I hope to have better luck with the next ones.
 
  • #49
I heard that in the wild they live in muddy pools that get filled in the rainy season and the triops have a quick generation before going back into dormancy... so maybe the water was just too clean?
 
  • #50
Yesterday (9/12/10) I decided to try my Beni-kabuto ebi albino Triops canciformis.
I noticed today (9/13/10) when I got home from work there was 2 swimming around in the tank. A few hours later I have 10-15 bobbing around now.
These Triops are red, and I can tell they have a pink coloration to them compared to the Triops Austrailensis 'Green' I hatched which looked completely white.

I still need to clean the 10 gallon tank of the driftwood and decorative stone I have in the tank. Then hopefully collect the eggs from the Triops Austrailensis 'Green' to try hatching again at a later date.
 
  • #51
Yey! hope...er life springs eternal.
 
  • #52
Here are some pics of the Triops cancriformis - red.
They are 1/4 to 3/8 of an inch long. 13 Days old. I have 19 of them in the 10 gallon tank.

triops-red-004.jpg


triops-red-009.jpg


These guys would look neater on black stones. I think I have some somewhere....
 
  • #53
Are you trying to get them to breed? I've always loved these things, but they're so short lived. Never seen them walking before.
 
  • #54
They are interesting critters.
I do have eggs from the ones that have already ran their life cycle.
 
  • #55
Wonderfully bizarre critters. They look like horseshoe crabs, which I've always wanted to keep. I hope you have more luck with the new generation.
 
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