I first saw triops when I was twelve. I bought my first kit about a month later. I quickly developed an obsession with he little guys that lasted until I was fourteen. I still enjoy them, and figured it's about time that I tell people what I've learned. With the first kit I got I followed the instructions to the letter. I put the bottled water in the jar and dumped the dirt and eggs into the water. This was about four three years before they started adding the little teabag thing, which has never worked for me. Anyway, the next day I saw nauplii swimming around, and the day after that, all but one was gone, by the third day there was none at all. About ten kits later with the same results, I decided to pull out my 1940s oil immersion microscope and start searching for clues as to what was killing my triops. I had already spent have of what I had saved up that year, and I really wanted to get triops thing down without spending all the rest. Anyway, out comes the old microscope and what did I see? Absolutely nothing. Nada, zilch. I even tried staining the water, but it appeared as sterile as when it was in the bottle. I figured this could be the problem, my triops could be starving to death. So I started some more kits, this time feeding them yeast. This time they lived for about four days and as soon as they started swimming on the bottom, the died. Out comes the microscope, this time I saw a sludge like fungus on the feathery Gil-feet. Tried a few more times, same result, fungus and bacteria were killing my triops . At this point I started burying myself into anything that might tell me any information about the ecology of vernal pools. Nothing helped. This is where I finally hit on a successful idea. I started making "tea". Out of just about everything I could think of, going to find something that would stay suspended in water, could be eaten by baby triops, and would inhibit bacteria and mold growth. What I found to be the most promising was oak bark. But would it kill triops? I started a new kit like normal, but this time I added the oak bark tea to the water when I set the triops up. I added enough to make the water look like a relatively weak tea. The results? Not one of those little guys died on me until they had all reached well over a month. The tannins in the bark extract kept bacteria in check, and the triops could eat the microscopic floating debris. That first successful batch started a colony that supplied me with all the triops I needed for any experiments I wanted to conduct. Over the next year I learned a lot of little tricks to making triops grow faster and live longer. They grow fastest when water is kept around 83 degrees and an airstone is added, if no stone, then they do better at around 78. Varying the temperature on a day/night schedule also spurs their growth. i learned some neat tricks, some through experimentation, some just by accident. i decided one day to set up some sterile containers to move some triops to test the addition of methylene blue to the water(i was aiming for higher dissolved oxygen,) when lo and behold as soon as i moved the first one, it laid its eggs immediately. the triops died shortly after that, but i found out that if you move a mature triops to distilled water, and then move it back immediately after it lays its eggs, you can determine the exact number of eggs they can lay per day. this led to a whole line of experiments on its own, none of which ill get into right now. i plan on setting up a triops colony pretty soon to see how well they work for food for baby garter snakes. if anyone has any ideahs for off the wall uses for triops, or any other branchiopods for that matter, i would love to hear them. my latest project i have going on is a tank i just set up for some beavertail fairy shrimp i ordered online. its now day five and they area doing great, wich is good since i paid 3.50 per egg... ill post more on that project later.

You should come to thetriopsforum.com, we have a lot of newby members that would do well with advice from someone this experienced.