Q&A for How to Care for Triops

You can also feed your Triops with infusoria, a nutritious green water. Alternatively, offer them deli fat or powdered food, which they'll easily consume as well.

They will lay eggs more or less automatically. To preserve them, be sure there's an adequate substrate (sand is preferred). Once the living brood has died off, allow the tank/container dry out completely, then repeat the steps used to hatch the first brood.

Keeping their tank clean and not overfeeding them can let them live as healthily as possible. Yes, they can eat almost anything, as they are known to be omnivorous. They can eat earthworms, par-boiled veggies, water-fleas, brine shrimp (Artemia/sea-monkeys), algae, blood-worms, houseflies, and even other triops if all other food is scarce.

At your local pet-shop. Look for food like (or similar to) the following types: TetraPrima, Tetratabimin, Hikari tropical algae wafers, Hikari Tropical Sinking Carnivore Pellets, Hikari Crab Cuisine, Spirulina, Tetra Baby Food, Bloodworm Sinking Pellets.

In about one week, they should get to about a half inch long or longer, including their tails. They should still be a translucent pink color.

If you keep them in good health then they can live as long as 14 weeks. Though 8 weeks is typical. (Triops cancriformis lives the longest.)

You might be overfeeding your little friend. Remove the mould as soon as possible as it may pollute the water and eventually kill your triops. Remove all food from your tank if it remains uneaten for over 24 hours and then try feeding them again with new pellets.

Yes, you can remove the moss on top of the tank. Scoop it out gently, but be careful not to scoop up the triops.

Take the pellets that you're feeding them with and put them in a metal spoon. Take a second spoon and lay it "inside" the other, as if stacking. Crush the pellets and pour the crushed pellets in the tank. This will not allow you to easily remove any extra food though.

Triops are known to eat fairy shrimp and water fleas (Daphnia). They're also known to eat common earthworms, blood-worms, houseflies, and brine shrimp (Artemia, also known as sea monkeys). They're omnivorous and will eat almost anything smaller than it, including other triops.

Triops can grow pretty big. Some triops have been measured at 11cm (4 inches) in the wild (don't include their long tails when measuring their length)! Typically, you can get them to grow 6-8cm (2-3 inches) in length in a tank. Triops cancriformis species grows the biggest.

Simply vigorously shaking the bottled water before adding it to your triops tank will create enough oxygen for them. If there is not enough, triops will often swim on their backs with their feet near the surface to catch air, but this so-called sign may also be them catching food on the surface. Additionally, introducing aquatic plants to your triops tank will help reduce nitrates and produce oxygen as well as provide a healthy snack.

You take a small fish net and scoop them out. Then you use a pipette to suck out all debris and add a little bit of new water.

Typically, most instructions will recommend natural spring water on the label. Bottled water made for betta fish at your local pet store is also considered ideal for triops.

Yes, you can. Rinse it with bottled water, not tap water, before adding it to the tank.

Triops are omnivorous, meaning they eat both meat and vegetation. In the wild, triops live in rain water puddles, meaning anything form mosquito larvae to water fleas and any other minuscule creature will likely be eaten by the triops. Additionally, algae and other aquatic plants are eaten. In captivity, triops can also be fed par-boiled vegetables, particularly carrot, lettuce, and cauliflower. Frozen or flake/pellet foods for fish are also a common choice for protein such as bloodworms and brine shrimp, even tropical fish flakes.

One should be plenty. The babies will not eat that much, and too much can quickly make the water dirty and unsafe.

Sea monkeys, better known as brine shrimp, are saltwater creatures. Mixing them with the freshwater triops would be unwise for several reasons.

They lay about 10-30 per mating, and have babies in their stomachs for about five to six weeks.

No, they're not. They're quite different. Triops are freshwater crustaceans from the order 'Notostraca' and 'sea monkeys' or Artemia are the only genus in their family of 'Artemiidae', which are salt-water crustaceans.' Artemia are also known by the name of 'brine shrimp' or 'aqua dragons'.

As long as it's not cold water (which is suggested for goldfish). I would think the good bacteria from a cycled tank would be beneficial.

Make sure the water is room temperature. If you you live in a cold climate, it's best if you move the tank to a warm area. Triops eggs can take anywhere from 2-5 days to hatch, and sometimes even longer. Most likely there is nothing wrong, just try to be patient!

No, you don't. You might want to cut the worms into small pieces though.

No, other sea creatures would eat the triops, or the triops would eat them.

As long as there aren't any harmful chemicals in the water, then it should be fine.

Yes, you can, but you still need to feed them triop food as well.

You should be alright with just changing the water once a week. If the triops are big enough, you can put them in a separate tank while cleaning theirs, or take about 2/3 of the water out and fill it with new water. Always make sure the water you're putting them in has the same stats as the water they've been in prior to that, as the shock from vast differences in temperature or chemicals can kill them.

You should have one adult triop per gallon of water at best, so it depends on how many triops you have.

Yes, you do need to change the water in the fish bowl. To do this, take out the triops and any nutrients floating at the top of the water, and put them in a different tank with water. Pour the water out of the fish bowl, and add new water. Then put the triops and nutrients back in the bowl. Make sure the water is fairly warm, and that there is still sand at the bottom of the tank.

Before you add the bottled water, shake it well to add some oxygen to the tank. You can also use an air pump as well.