Wednesday, January 7, 2009

We mourn our friend the Triops.

A few weeks ago, on December 21, our triops passed away during the night. He lived to be 53 days, more than half the age of the longest living triops.

We took some photos of his lifeless body and noticed that he (or she, or it) had some egg sacs, we didn't see him lay any eggs, but it's possible. So we're going to let the tank dry out. (The eggs need to be dry before hatching) So far, the tank hasn't been drying very fast, but we've moved it to a warmer place which will hopefully work.



The top two photos show his egg sacs that are filled with eggs. The bottom left is his underside, and the bottom right is a close-up of his tail.



Some more parts of the triops. The upper left photo shows the algae on his shell, the photo on the right is his back legs, and the bottom two show his eyes.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi --

I've raised these little things and enjoyed them and hope it shows in the book and photos.

I am shamelessly promoting a new book: Triops -- a very unusual creature

http://www.littlesciencebooks.com/

It is the only book on Triops for ages 7-11 and has gotten excellent reviews from teachers and librarians.

Lori Adams