Triop World from Interplay UK

13:24 Pippa Ainsworth 0 Comments

Regular readers will know that Bud is dinosaur crazy so when the opportunity to hatch some tiny creatures that have been around on the planet since dinosaurs walked the earth I knew he would love it. We were sent the Triop World Kit from Interplay and have been hatching our Triops.

Triops are small crustaceans with a fossil record dating back over 300 million years Their eggs lie dormant in dry areas until they get wet and hatch. They are fond of warm, dirty water which allows them to eat bacteria in it.

The Triops World kit includes a small tank, a packet of Triops eggs, a packet of detritus, packet of Triops food, bag of sand, plastic spoon and pipette. You will also receive an informative instruction booklet. To prepare to hatch your Triops you need to collect rain water. We used a bucket in the garden and then filtered it through a muslin cloth to ensure that any bits were removed. We then poured it into the tank. You place half of the packets of detritus and eggs in the tank and you should start to see life within 24 hours.

We had a few tiny different creatures hatch at first but the Triops soon ate them and we were left with one large Triop. Within 24 hours they look like tiny versions of their adult form which allows you to see them develop, there is a really good guide to their form in the instruction booklet,

After three days you can skim off some of the detritus on the top of the tank using the included plastic spoon, and also feed the Triops using a tiny pinch of the food. We found that our Triops must have laid eggs because, as one died another was growing up to replace it. It was interesting to watch them grow and, as they fed on the greener matter at the base of the tank, change colour to reflect what they had been eating.

Bud has been competely fascinated by the Triops kit and has been so excited to watch them swimming around in their tan. The largest Triop got to around two centimetres long so it was easy to watch it swimming around, We did find that some of the Triops died and were found floating on top of the water even though we hadn't seen that many of the little creatures in the tank. Very strange!

The Triops are really hard to photograph in action but here's a little video of them in action.