This is my personal site about my pet Triops called Bob. In his short life I took many photos of him and this is primarily what this site is... it contains lots of pictures. There is a small amount of Triops information in this site but it's mainly about what I learned whilst keeping Bob.
Triops aren't very pretty but they are cute and all have different personalities. They are not particularly clean either but can benefit from a water change occasionally and I'll explain how to do that later.
Bob's Interests
Bob spent most of his time eating, playing and bumping into the sides of the tank. He had some friends to play with but they died around 20 to 22 days old and they had egg sacs. He was in to aquabatics and regularly showed off his swimming abilities.
Food
Favourite foods which Bob enjoyed were raw carrot, raw fish and fish food (pellet form reduces pollution). In the early days he was fed formulated Triop food which was supplied with the Triops kit. Feeding Bob was easy and his feeding routine was morning and night. I cut his food up into very small pieces and fed him. Any food not devoured between meals was removed to avoid pollution.
Making Bob Happy
To make Bob happy (and stay alive) I had to keep him warm. I found putting a lamp by his tank quite useless although light does have a positive effect on Triops. To solve this problem I bought a larger tank and a heater for tropical fish. This kept the water at a temperature of 26 degrees centigrade.
Bob the Travelling Triops
Bob spent Christmas 2005 in Wales with myself, my partner and my family. Having nobody to care for him we decided to take him with us. This trip had to be properly organised to ensure Bob's welfare.
We travelled from the West Midlands with the journey lasting three hours. Bob travelled in a small tank complete with a sticky thermometer attached to indicate he was warm enough. He was warmed by the car heater and I kept an eye on the temperature every half hour.
When we got to our destination, I brought Bob in to the house and put him near the open fire again checking the temperature was fine. I immediately prepared his big tank, set up the heater and as soon as the water reached the required temperature, placed him in.
On Christmas day I opened his present - a tub of fish food. My Mum didn't know what to make of him, my Dad thought he was cute and my Sister, well put it this way, Bob wasn't fluffy and therefore not pleasant nor interesting. The two cats liked the look of him though!
After four days it was time to go home and I repeated the above process again. He probably didn't know anything had happened.
Bob Departs...
On 31 December 2005 Bob died.
RIP Bob "Traveller" Triops
Hatched 3 December 2005 - Died 31 December 2005
Aged 28 days
Buried in the garden 01/01/06
But it's not the end...
There are still eggs from the kit which Bob was hatched from and with those I'll start another generation of Bobs.
Bob leaves me with my first ever experience with Triops and armed with that experience hopefully I'll become more expert at raising and keeping these cute pets in the future...