#(INVASIVE WASPS ARE BAD OFC)

[evanwevand]

Stop demonizing wasps

Just leave them alone please

[crevicedwelling]

Can we please see some more of those Triops you had some years ago (if you have more videos/photos of them ofc)

btw you just threw them in a bucket and they even TRIVED in there? should i do that if i someday have Triops?

(Triops longicaudatus)

so I had one of those commercially sold packets of eggs I’d gotten as a kid, and never got any to grow past the first few microscopic instars since the care instructions were really bad. I didn’t even know what they looked like as adults!

a few years ago I found the egg bag, and emptied it into a 10 gallon tank outside with some sand, forgot about it, and then a few months later it had filled with a couple centimeters of rain and had two huge Triops in it! these laid eggs in the sand, which became the bunch in this video after being dried and rehydrated (the video is after I brought them indoors because of the cold, water is unusually clear). other generations thrived in a literal bucket of dirt, like in the first post.

they’re largely filterfeeders so fed on the algae and microorganisms living in the water, and ate drowned wasps, mosquito larvae, and dead leaves if they were available. I’m not sure what the exact key to success was, but many things replicated their wild vernal pool habitat: 80-90°F weather, a lot of sun for their algae, very shallow water, and rainwater rather than anything filtered.

I can’t say if keeping them like this is right for you. when kept like this Triops spend most of their time in murky water so they’re hard to see. I also suspect the favorable conditions shortened their lifespan to about 30 days (a couple weeks less than normal I think). if you live somewhere they can escape and become invasive, don’t keep them outdoors. otherwise it’s a decent way to make a bunch of Triops with essentially zero effort