July 28, 2012 - Triops

At one of the last school book orders in June, the Boy wanted to get a setc of books that came with a kit to grow Triops.  I delayed the start of them because I felt that they were going to be very difficult to grow and awfully time consuming.  The instructions were very detailed and it involved cleaning their water and feeding them three times a day.  However the Boy was persistent and I finally gave in.  We started them on Thursday afternoon.

It really would be easier to get a fish! I should have trusted my instincts.  First of all we had to make sure that their hatching water (which is Evian water) maintained a temperature between 74 and 79 degrees.  That took four hours to make sure.

This container of eggs has enough eggs to
do this experiment three times (so I would
assume there are about 45-60 eggs)

we needed to grate carrots for the bottom of the dish (I'm not entirely sure why.  But we did) Then we took the tiny container of seeds and carefully dumped out 15-20 seeds onto a white piece  of paper to be counted.  We had 21 - close enough for me.  I let the Boy count them and he got so close to them that he kept blowing them off the paper!

Then we left them overnight to grow and hopefully hatch.  I forgot to mention that they won't hatch if they are stuck to the sides so you have to keep flushing them off the side of the dish.

I know you can't even see them but there is
three of them in this dish.  They should grow
to be about an inch long, so they will be more
photogenic then!

Sometime yesterday afternoon one hatched.  I sent the Boy up to his room to check on them.  He was disappointed when nothing happened.  I checked and found one had hatched.  It was so friken small.  we needed a  magnifying glass to see it.

Once they hatch you need to start to feed them the included baby food. They need to be fed three times a day.

Anyhow the Boy is now responsible for his Triops which have now grown to three. I need to remind him to feed them, but he is doing alright so far. Tomorrow we need to start cleaning their water. Fish would have definately been easier. If he does alright with his Triops, we might just get him a fish for his birthday!

I forgot to mention that the Baby has taken to making this cute smirk smile when ever he is in a silly mood.  He squints his eyes and makes this flat smile, it is really silly and adorable.