#Instant Fish, Triops
6 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?
There are 2 Replies.
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John: I ordered those triops from American Surplus last fall and they ended up
getting me back in this hobby after 20 years.
They look like tadpoles, basically, and swim using a zillion legs or something
on their sides. I got 4 out of the first batch. One grew very fast and ate the
others. I own a comic book store and put the bowl of triop stuff in a showcase
under a light. When you put the stuff the eggs are attached to in the water, it
looks remarkably like shredded tobacco, and many people thought that's what it
was. After they hatched, everyone said, "Sea monkeys!" But the water is really
scummy.
I did 2 batches out of the one kit, each batch lived about a month. I've still
got half a pack of the little green balls they give you to feed the little
guys. Guppies seem to like it.
Chuck Seeley
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1: Ah, wonderful! Someone with real triops expeirrience. I don'tlive hnear
2: the facstoreoffices of Nasco, a large educational supplier, so I
3: stopped by to pick up whtheir catalog this moenrning. They did
c 4: arry the "instant fish" kits, but no triops. I did
5: double-check theirr index for the species 'eubranchipoda'
6: to no avail. They did have a college-level textbookbook for
7: differeintiating atingating between the spceiciecies of freshwater crusteaacea,
8: but it really didn't go into much detail about these.
9: It did list the order Order Branchiopoda, which generally called
10: the "fairy shrimp".," and mentioned the eubrainchiopoda
11: in passing. Or herpsperhaps I should say it went into mtoo
12: much detail, and not enough genlittering generalizties about
13: the actuall a appearance of each species, such as a
14: drawing of the entire body, as opposed to a highly magifinificed
15: view of the body part that differentiated it from others.
16:
17: The catalog also lists "fairy shrimp (gammaarus)" as
18: live culture, 100 for $12.50. , aka "amphipods."
19:
20: So did they resemble shrimp or , tadpoles, or horsehowe shoe crabs?
21: Did they have a discinttinct shell? How big did the biggest
22: one get? Did they lay eggs?
23: /post
Message # 409054 posted
Ah, wonderful! Someone with real triops experience. I live near the offices
of Nasco, a large educational supplier, so I stopped by to pick up their
catalog this morning. They did carry the "instant fish" kits, but no triops.
I did double-check their index for the species 'eubranchipoda' to no avail.
They did have a college-level book for differentiating between the species of
freshwater crustacea, but it really didn't go into much detail about these. It
did list the Order Branchiopoda, generally called the "fairy shrimp," and
mentioned the eubranchiopoda in passing. Or perhaps I should say it went into
too much detail, and not enough glittering generalities about the actual
appearance of each species, such as a drawing of the entire body, as opposed to
a highly magnified view of the body part that differentiated it from others.
The catalog also lists "fairy shrimp (gammarus)" as live culture, 100 for
$12.50, aka "amphipods."
So did they resemble shrimp, tadpoles, or horseshoe crabs? Did they have a
distinct shell? How big did the biggest one get? Did they lay eggs?
There is 1 Reply.
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John: As I said, the triops resemble tadpoles. The information on the
box says that "tadpole shrimp" is their popular name. The largest one
I had, Barbie, looked to be about 3/4 of an inch long. I don't know
if they laid eggs. I don't think raising them as a food source would
be all that efficient compared to everything else out there.
Chuck Seeley
Read action !go science
John,
Usually, those "Instant Fish kits," are indeed a killie. Some of the
popular aquarium related mags, contain ads in them for similar deals. They are
simply a killie whose spawn is peat moss incubatible, and are ready to hatch.
Many people who lecture on killies at clubs, bring a bag of egg laden peat
with them, plop it into some water at the beginning of their talk, and by the
time they are finished, there are baby fish swimming around. Sort of
fascinates the onlookers, if ya know what I mean<g>…
== Lee, San Diego ==
== 12-FEB-1995 12:59a ==
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1: Thanks, I;'ll check out the little ads in an qaqaruuriarium-related
2: mag. I suspected I might find other ads relating to
f 3: reshwater crustacea that people might raise for food.,
4: like the "triops" I also mentioned.
5: /post
Message # 409323 posted