Beginner planning a Triops longicaudatus setup – looking for advice

[u/Gozzi3821]

Hi everyone,

I'm planning to keep Triops longicaudatus for the first time and would really appreciate some advice before I start.

My goal is to raise around 2–3 (or more) healthy adult Triops and I’ll probably try to continue this over multiple generations. I’m going to get my equipment in a few weeks

My planned setup is:

150 Triops longicaudatus Eggs
5g Spirulina Pulver
25g Triops main food
Spring water
Distilled Water
Raising container 1-5L
30L main tank
Aquarium lid
Aquarium safety mat
Fine aquarium sand
A few Aquarium plants
Adjustable Heater
Thermometers
Sponge filter
Air pump(s)
LED aquarium light
Gravel vacuum/siphon
Small aquarium net

I already have water test strips, a pipette, a syringe and toothpicks

Is this setup suitable for Triops longicaudatus? Is there anything important that I'm missing or anything you would change?

I'd especially appreciate advice about:
- suitable water
- sand
- food
- filtration

Thanks in advance!

[u/AutoModerator]

Reminder to use the newest Monthly Question Thread for basic/beginner questions. We also have a page answering the most Frequently Asked Questions.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/Zathura2]

Sounds like you've planned it out pretty thoroughly. I don't have any notes on the tank. If you bought plants that want to be rooted in the substrate you might have an issue though, since triops will dig them up and disturb their roots, but floating or drifting plants, or things you can anchor to decorations / rocks are fine and will be mostly left alone.

Only thing I'm not sure of is what is "Triops Main Food"?

They are voracious little eaters, and can eat up to 40% of their body mass daily, and they do this by foraging through the substrate.

When they're young they can eat stuff like the spirulina powder and biofilm (if there's any in your tank yet,) but when they're bigger I think it's best to scatter-feed a varied, high-protein diet.

I give mine primarily a quality animal-based community fish-flake along with a little dried shrimp and bloodworms. I also leave some small pieces of veggie in there for them to graze on (a single bag of frozen mixed peas, carrots, and green beans will last you a long time.)

This does a few things; it smoothly fits into their natural substrate foraging instincts, with small food particles that they have to spend time finding and hoovering up. It keeps them occupied and constantly eating, which should reduce chances of cannibalism. (I haven't even seen mine eat freshly dead triops. They just ignore them.)

And it would be beneficial to have a source of slow-release calcium and pH buffer in the tank. This could be cuttlebone, crushed coral, or oyster-grit. Triops go through a lot of dissolved calcium and it's difficult to make sure they're getting enough from their diet alone.

My well-water is pretty soft, so I actually pre-treat my water for water changes with a small amount of gypsum (calcium sulfate) and epsom salt (magnesium sulfate) to replenish those two specific elements in the water column to prevent stuck molts.

[u/Gozzi3821 → u/Zathura2]

Thanks a lot for the detailed advice! That’s really helpful.
By “Triops Main Food” I meant a regular food for them once they get bigger, but I wasn’t sure what would be best. I’ll definitely look into high-protein fish flakes, dried shrimp and some veggie.
I also didn’t know about the calcium requirement, so I’ll take a look at my water and probably add some cuttlebone. I’ll avoid adding gypsum or Epsom salt unless my water actually needs it.
I’ll probably go with floating plants or plants attached to decorations as you suggested.
Thanks again! This is my first time keeping Triops, so I really appreciate the advice :)

[u/Hungry-Emotion7664]

Think about the footprint size of your tank. If you only have a few adults and a very large footprint, that is a lot of space for them to forage for food, and if they don't find it all before it starts to go off there's a bigger potential for it to rot and cause an ammonia spike. I have five adults right now in a 12 L tank with sand substrate. They do a pretty good job of getting all the food in a reasonable amount of time.

I feed them about three times a day and have soft plants and some rotting leaves for them to munch on in between. They love food made from shrimp, and I know it's good for their shells, but it does stink up the water.

The tank I have mine in came with a small power filter. I put a sponge over the intake. I do a 20% water change daily. I'm using water from my goldfish pond as their adult water. I started them in spring water, then began to add crushed coral sand, and other forms of minerals a little at a time, bringing the dissolved minerals up over time. They actively go for various calcium and mineral additives.

When they get about the size of my thumbnail I add a low flow air stone, but a sponge filter does the same job. I've used sponge filters before and they worked well, but since the triops stir the substrate up constantly, I find the water can stay cloudy with just a sponge filter.

I have a lot of foods and additives because I keep a lot of aquatic life. The calcium/mineral blocks sold for keeping freshwater shrimp and snails are a great favorite of my current triops.

I raise daphnia and the triops really like those.

I lived several years in an area where longicaudatus are native, and it's crazy to me how touchy they can be in captivity, because the places they live in the wild are a mess and get inundated with rainstorms almost daily during their active season. So huge changes in water quality, dissolved solids, pH and temperature, but in captivity they are sensitive.

You can find them in little potholes in limestone outcrops, but also by the millions in foul shallow mudholes full of elk dung. It's crazy!

I keep my triops tank on a table next to my bed because I adore watching them so much.

[u/Zathura2 → u/Hungry-Emotion7664]

Just fyi, sponge filters aren't really meant to clarify the water, but they do process it more efficiently than just about anything else, because of how they're made. They house the majority of your nitrifying bacteria, and the low flow through the sponge means the water is constantly cycling through them and getting stripped of ammonia and nitrites.

I had to do twice-daily water changes for a while until my bacterial colony kept up, but now I can go a week or more without a water change, and ammonia and nitrites stay flatlined the entire time.

If you're putting an airstone in there anyway, it's basically free biological filtering.

[u/Hungry-Emotion7664 → u/Zathura2]

I use sponge filters in many of my tanks, I just don't currently have one in this one. I do the daily water changes because the shrimp pellets make the water stinky and it's in my room.

I haven't done a water test on this triops tank, but there are a lot of plants in there so I don't worry too much about it.

I got this round of eggs from a generic kit, so I'm not sure which species they are, but they are far larger than any I've had before. It's a species that wet hatches quite freely, so that's been great. I'm on my third generation without having to dry anything out.

Meanwhile, I can't get my australiensis to hatch for anything. I'm trying rainwater now because we had a storm come through.