Help!! I just killed my DS' Triops!

[TheMostHappy]

Argh!! We got a triops kit for Christmas. We started it just over a week ago, and got two - yes two (2!) measly triops - despite following the instructions to the letter.

DS or I have obviously over fed the damned things throughout the week, and there was globby see through mould in the water, so me being me bought a new kit (read "paid an arm and a leg to Bezos") which I started yesterday.

I thought to myself, the new kit looked like a much nicer, cleaner habitat for the two bigger triops, so - me bring me again (fucksake!) thought I would carefully transfer them across.

Both the fuckers looked a bit cranky within seconds so I transferred them quickly back again. They are now completely and utterly dead at the bottom of the original tank. Fml!!

Should I say they are sleeping, and hope the new kit hatches some eggs to distract him? Any other suggestions welcome.

Just to note, I feel awful about this - I was just trying to help 😩

Did you use tap water? Apparently you're supposed to use some kind of bottled water but I'm not sure why.

I think it has to be distilled water

Apparently the chlorine in tap water is toxic to them so I used bottled spring water. Seriously, their ancestors have graced the earth for 250 million odd years and yet I couldn't keep them alive for a week in Chez Happy.

Maybe the change in water shocked them too much? Could have been down to a sudden change in PH/temperature/ammonia.

This brings back too many memories of keeping fish for DS. I honestly became obsessed with measuring levels of everything under the sun in the water. I could’ve taken a Chemistry degree by the end of it. They died anyway.
Put both kits in the bin. Drink gin.
That’s my advice.

If you let the tank dry out completely there may be some unhatched eggs in the residue and you can try again with the first batch.
They're supposed to be difficult to hatch at this time of year unless you have a heat mat.
I think if you write to the manufacturer, saying you had no eggs hatch, they'll send you a new packet, but it sounds like you've got two lots to be going on with.

Oh god this brings back memories!

We only ever had one. It was manic and went round and round its bowl as fast as it could, apparently continuously, before expiring of exhaustion. I think I just told DS they don't live very long and he was OK about it.

I like animals and am a big cat person but it's hard to love a triops.

Are they like sea monkeys?

@IthinkIm

Are they like sea monkeys?

They're bigger with a flatter body.

When I was a kid we were looking and them and my mum knocked them all over her jeans 😂 I didn't forgive her for at least a week

@mrsed1987

When I was a kid we were looking and them and my mum knocked them all over her jeans 😂 I didn't forgive her for at least a week

I got the dreaded "where are my triops" at bedtime and just fronted it out, said I was just trying to help and they didn't like it. He was quite cross and I got a stink eye and a bit of a telling off "should have left them alone" which of course I should. Still nothing in the new kit. I shall let both dry out and see if anything happens after. What a total palaver! I thought these would be the easiest things ever to look after, but no!

Yeah we did sea monkeys a few weeks ago, got 2 hatched and DD was very excited for about 5 minutes, she had it on her calendar to feed them once a week like the instructions said and it was her job and we reminded her.

Poor little blighters starved to death we think at 3 weeks old.

This just breaking - we have 2 new babies in the new set up!!

We started off with around seven triops. The numbers went down and we realised (because we kept catching them in the act) they were eating each other.

So we ended up with one triumphant cannibal triop. It swam around, ate the food supplied once it had polished off its siblings, shed its carapace periodically and finally died after three months. DD, who was seven and very, very soft-hearted, was sad for a day.

We still have the kit and a sealed packet of the eggs but have never around to repeating the project for DS. It is hard to love a triop.

Congrats OP! 🦐
(due to some terrible oversight there's no triops emoji, so this prawn is standing in)

@HerselfIndoors

Congrats OP! 🦐 (due to some terrible oversight there's no triops emoji, so this prawn is standing in)

Haha! Thanks so much!! It is a happy day indeed at Chez Happy

@CatChant

We started off with around seven triops. The numbers went down and we realised (because we kept catching them in the act) they were eating each other.

So we ended up with one triumphant cannibal triop. It swam around, ate the food supplied once it had polished off its siblings, shed its carapace periodically and finally died after three months. DD, who was seven and very, very soft-hearted, was sad for a day.

We still have the kit and a sealed packet of the eggs but have never around to repeating the project for DS. It is hard to love a triop.

God the idea of a cannibalistic triops is slightly terrifying. Did it get quite large?

God the idea of a cannibalistic triops is slightly terrifying. Did it get quite large?

It got big enough that I didn't need to wear specs to spot it. About the length of a normal fingernail, I think.

Ours was called Cannibal Emma. DD picked Emma.

Emma :o

I remember years ago DS had Sea Monkeys, the water had gone manky so we put the tank in the kitchen window in the sun to dry out and start again.
Came back from holiday and my Mum, who'd been watering the plants, had helpfully bleached it clean for me...

I had a giant cannibal one too! Really freaked me out actually, was not too heartbroken when it eventually gave up and expired. Watching them eat food (rather than each other) was quite fascinating though.