#Instant Fish, Triops
3 messages in this thread
Edmund Scientific has "Instant Fish Kits" for $20 or so with dried fish eggs,
plop them in water and they turn into live fish.
These are a kind of killie, aren't they? If I grow them, dry out their tank
after they've laid eggs, any chance I'll end up with more viable dry eggs?
Either way, I imagine they have a short natural life expectancy?
Also, they sell "triops" (eubranchiopoda) kits for $7. Are these available
from fish stores for less? Anyone out there ever played with these?
A picture of the "triops" in the American Science & Surplus catalog makes it
look like a little horseshoe crab, with a distinct shell and tail. It looked
similar to some kind of southwestern lives-a-month- in-a-puddle briny
shrimp-like creature I saw for a few moments on a documentary a week or so ago.
But the Edmund catalog shows something that looks more like a pink fairy shrimp
with eyes on stalks.
So what might be these freshwater horseshoe crab-like critters that I saw in
that short clip on the documentary, and where can I get some?
This killie kit sounds interesting. If you want to dry the tank up and breed
them, I think you may need to have peat on the botom of the tank where the fish
can lay their eggs. Also, once you re-hydrate the tank (after a drying period
of some time, I think), and hatch the fish, you may be able to dry the peat out
again, and get some more to hatch, as Killies often lay some eggs that hatch
after one re-wetting, some that hatch after two, and so on (in case there are
false alarms!).
You may want to check out the fish forum on CI$. There are many knowledgable
people there who have actually done this before, and they may also be able to
help you out with your other questins.
Cheers,
GTL
Greg Laden
Dept. of Anthropology
Harvard University
Cambridge MA 02138