Caring for Triops & Sea Monkeys

As unusual pets go, they don’t come much lower-maintenance than Triops or Sea Monkeys – asking for little more than the simplest of containers as home, the right sort of water to live in and a little food a few times a week. Widely available from a variety of sources – often as complete kits – both Sea Monkeys and Triops can be a fascinating introduction to keeping something a little out of the ordinary and even quite young children can safely enjoy caring for some of the oddest creatures on the planet.

Instant Life

Part of their appeal lies in their amazing natural survival strategies – the microscopic eggs of both kinds of animals can survive in a dormant state for years, to hatch out later when they are given the right conditions. In the wild, this is their way of dealing with the periodic or seasonal drying up of their watery homes – something which makes them perfectly happy to be packaged, stored and then even posted out to aspiring pet keepers. Provide them with their very modest needs and within a few days, your new pets will hatch out and begin to grow. Sadly, neither have particularly long lives – a year or so for Sea Monkeys and only a few weeks for Triops – but they should lay eggs, which can often allow you to enjoy a second generation later.

Container

For both Triops and Sea Monkeys you’ll need a suitable container; the kits usually contain small plastic tanks, but especially for Triops – and particularly if you’re very lucky with your hatching – they can get a little small once the animals start to grow. An adult Triops needs around 2 litres of water to be able to get enough oxygen – and since they naturally enjoy exploring the base of their pools, the floor area is more important than the depth. One of the best and cheapest choices is the sort of plastic container regularly sold in supermarkets for keeping food in.

Hatching

Hatching instructions come with the kits – and they are very easy to follow. For Triops, you’ll need to fill your tank with spring or bottled water – not chlorinated tap water – and then add the eggs, which normally come with some food in the same sachet to see the hatchlings over their first few days. Small Triops should appear in about 24 hours.

Sea Monkeys live in salt water – so the first part of preparing for them involves adding the kit’s salt package to the water. A day later, you add the eggs and in five days your small new pets should be putting in an appearance.

Feeding

Once Triops get a bit bigger, it’s important not to over-feed them as the mucky water and bacterial growth this causes can kill them off surprisingly quickly. The kit will usually contain food, but any fish food will do – just a few crumbs per animal to start with and then adjust as you see how much is left uneaten.

Sea Monkeys are just as easily killed with kindness, so feed them sparingly too; as for the type of food, although they seem to happily munch algae, most people feed them a specially prepared Sea Monkey diet, in line with the recommendation found in most of the kits.

Who’s Who?

Both animals are crustaceans – relatives of crabs, lobsters and woodlice; sometimes called “tadpole” or “shield” shrimps, Triops belong to an ancient group of crustaceans known as the notostracans. Although there are different species found across the world, the most common kind offered for sale is the American Triops longicaudatus, which grows to around two-and-a-half inches (6cm).

Sea Monkeys are a kind of brine shrimp, Artemia salina, which have been specially bred to improve their lifespan and make them grow a little larger than the wild form. The Sea Monkey name was invented for marketing purposes – and is said to refer to their playful behaviour and not their looks, despite some of the illustrations on the packaging. A different kind of Australian brine shrimp is sometimes offered for sale under the name “Itsy Bitsy Sea Dragons”, which is equally fanciful, but perhaps just a little more accurate!

Neither of these animals have changed their appearance or way of life since the Triassic, so despite the pictures of T. Rex drawn on many of the kit packages, these chaps are way, way older! In fact, the European species Triops cancriformis is said to be the oldest living animal species on earth – being found in fossils dating from 220 million years ago.

It’s certainly not every day you get to keep a pet which can claim that sort of pedigree!