Hello everyone, it’s Pierre and welcome back to the channel!
This video shows the first 30 days of a Triops longicaudatus shrimp colony that I started recently with my son. It shows my tank setup, hatching and growth.
I started with a commercially available Triops kit and created an initial colony about a year ago. I collected the dried eggs after the shrimp died off (they don't live beyond a few weeks as they normally complete their life cycle in temporary flood pools). I made sure they were dry and stored them until I was ready to hatch another generation.
I used a 2.5 gallon tank and added all of the substrate that had eggs in it. I then filled it with dechlorinated water and added a small sponge filter, a thermometer set to 78 degrees F, a glass cover and an LED light. Within 24 hours, small nauplii hatched and then grew very quickly into adults. They molted often and occasionally preyed on each other. They also laid hundreds of eggs into the substrate and slowly died off after a few more weeks.
Triops longicaudatus is considered one of the larger species of these shrimp-like crustaceans. The name Triops means "3 eyes" and you can see this clearly when looking at a triops head on. There is a third "eye" called an ocellus between the 2 "normal" eyes. They look like small horseshoe crabs or even trilobites. They have long tails and many legs. They are extremely active and are always swimming and looking for food.
They have a very interesting life cycle where eggs lay dormant until rains come in the winter and spring, at which time they hatch. They mostly lay eggs without fertilization in the substrate of these vernal pools.
Have you kept Triops before? Leave a comment below!
As always, thanks for watching and happy fishkeeping! If you enjoy the content, please consider subscribing. Let me know if you have questions, I’m always happy to answer them!
#triops #shrimp #egg
