Brad's Triops

I enjoy raising triops, and it may, or may not be right for you. I'll tell you the pros and cons of it. And first of all, it appeals to my sense of humor to do something that most people have never even heard of. Triops?! Well, to be fair, I had never heard of triops before a few years ago when a friend of mine sent me a photo of them from the internet, and it made me curious. In my younger days I enjoyed having goldfish. It was a labor of love to be constantly cleaning the tank, which as I recall was about 20 gallons. In addition to a very serious filter, I would move the fish into buckets and carry the tank out in the backyard on a regular basis for a very thorough cleaning. I never did tropical fish, and I understand that the maintenance isn't so high, but I like goldfish. I would buy little tiny ones and enjoyed watching them grow, which they did! And I think watching them grow is why I like triops. They start out from eggs (which you get online) and once they hatch (in a c...

Although triop egg packages come with baby food, once you've gotten the hang of raising them and collecting their eggs, at some point you'll run out. But luckily it's an easy fix, all you need a pepper grinder and some blood worms. Triops love blood worms, but of course they're too big for their tiny little baby mouths, which are practically microscopic. I was surprised at how easy this was. Just drop in some blood worms into the pepper grinder (it should be dedicated just for your triops, by the way) grind them up as fine as possible, and then put them in a container (I wrote "Baby" on the ground-up stuff. And that's it. Once your triops have hatched, and they're big enough that you can tell the difference between them and specks of dust, give them a couple of days and then sprinkle a tiny amount of baby food into the nursery tank. They'll grow fast, real fast! I've been doing this for years, and as far as I can tell there seems to be no limit...

Something that I've found helpful when raising triops is my attitude as a gardener. Since triops are grown from eggs, it's very similar to planting seeds. I'll see if I can explain. Just like when preparing to plant something in your garden, preparation is important. Being sloppy just ain't gonna cut it, and while something may survive, and grow, being sloppy just lowers your chances. So start with some preparation. Triops like room temperature water, so it's best practice to fill the nursery tank a day or so before "planting the seeds", that is, before you drop the eggs and sand into the water. I got the nursery tank ready two days ago and dropped in the eggs and sand yesterday. And here's where you really have to be like a gardener - you need to be patient. They will hatch, and grow quickly, but not in a matter of a few hours - don't expect them to hatch for a day or two and don't be surprised if it takes several days before they're big e...