Day 12

SAD NEWS!!!! I got up this morning and all but one of my triops had died. I am too sad to write anything else today.

Day 11

They have shed their shells quite a lot now. When they shed their skins and shells it is a bit like a snake. They shed everything including their tails.

legs

I think this is the best photograph yet. We have zoomed in so that you can see a lot more detail. You can even see all the little legs.

Day 10

As you can see, they now have shells. I don't mean the sort you see at the seaside. I mean on their backs.

shed

They shed their shells as well when they grow too big for them. I cleaned them out earlier and found a tiny shed shell.

Day 9

My triops are now nine days old. They usually live for between 20 and 90 days. The oldest recorded triops in recent times was 100 days.

fast

This picture is of the biggest one in my tank. All four are growing really fast.

Day 8

As you can see from this video, the triops are continuing to grow throughout the day and night. In fact, I could almost say that you could see them grow in front of your very eyes!

I have even started to give them whole food pellets instead of crushing them.

It is great looking looking at them through the magnifying glass - it is very powerful and you can see lots of detail.

Day 7

The four triops are all roughly the same size now except for Ferrari who is the biggest. Ferrari is just under 1 cm long not including his tail.
They are all very energetic and love swooping around the tank.

bigger

I think I might need to get a bigger tank eventually if they keep growing this much to give them plenty of room for swimming around in.

Day 6

WWWWWWWOOOOOOOWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't believe how much they've grown. Now they're ALL growing really big. It is because they are eating loads of food pellets - they have had my dad's tea (joking).

Day 5

The biggest triop is turning into a monster. It is barging past all the other triops. It is zooming round the tank like a Ferrari. Its name is Ferrari.

bigger

I have to feed them twice as much now because they are getting much, much, much, much bigger. There are only four now, the other one must have died.

Day 4

This is not a very good picture because they are still very tiny but I hope you can see it in the middle. This one is about 5 millimetres long.
I have taken out the nutrients pack and increased how much I feed them.

three eyes

I have been using the magnifying glass to study them as they dart around. I have found out that they have three eyes and I can see their legs moving very quickly.

babies

At the moment we have to crush the food because they are only babies but soon we will be giving them whole pellets.

Day 3

The triops continue to grow throughout the day. I have increased how much food I give to them - just like any babies, they need a lot so that they can grow.

kit

The picture above is of the kit I bought with my Christmas money. It has everything you need to get started. It's only £10 and includes the tank, eggs, food, instructions and information, gravel and glow beads, a thermometer, a magnifying glass and a model fossil of a fully grown triop.

Day 2

This is what my triops will look like when they are fully grown. They double in size every day.

feeding time

I have now started to feed them special food which stinks! It comes in pellets but I have to crush them - the pellets, not the baby triops.

They are now about two millimetres long and are swimming and gliding.

learn to swim

When they were first born they jerked a lot when they were swimming but now they move much more smoothly and quicker. Tomorrow I will take the nutrients pack out and feed them some more.

Day 1

HI!!!!! I'm Hattie. I'm 10 years old and in my last year at primary school.
This is my scientific story about tremendous triops.
In case you don't know what triops are, they are prehistoric creatures that live in water - a little bit like shrimps. They have been around for over 220 million years.

preparation time

At Christmas I got £45 and bought the triops eggs and the kit for £10. When we got home I filled the tank with distilled water and added a nutrient pack. I put a lamp over the top of the tank because the water needs to be a certain temperature. I soaked the gravel before adding it to the tank because it could poison the triops when they hatch. I added the eggs to the tank (they are as tiny as a grain of sand).

there's life

Within 24 hours the triops hatched. So far there are five but you can't see them in the photo above because they are so small. Would you believe that they are only a milimetre long?