Q: What do baby Triops wear? A: Diapause!
June 24, 2011 1:57 PM Subscribe
I'm thinking of buying Triops for my office desk. Help me transform this impulse buy into a sensible purchase.
(I probably won't get the kit from the ThinkGeek link above, but I thought they did a good job explaining what the little guys actually are.)
I want to spice things up in the office a little so I'm considering buying a Triops kit. I was wondering if there is anything I should look at before making the purchase. I do realize they're not the Sea Monkeys I grew as a little kid and that there is a chance they will eat each other, but I'm pretty okay with that. Plus, I think having a desk pet will give me some motivation to get my lazy butt out of bed on days that I don't want to go to work.
(I probably won't get the kit from the ThinkGeek link above, but I thought they did a good job explaining what the little guys actually are.)
I want to spice things up in the office a little so I'm considering buying a Triops kit. I was wondering if there is anything I should look at before making the purchase. I do realize they're not the Sea Monkeys I grew as a little kid and that there is a chance they will eat each other, but I'm pretty okay with that. Plus, I think having a desk pet will give me some motivation to get my lazy butt out of bed on days that I don't want to go to work.
We got some triops eggs at Hobby Lobby of all places and hatched them out in a glass vase. They were fun, but also pretty sensitive to water changes and I ended up accidentally killing them.
posted by Ostara at 2:17 PM on June 24, 2011
posted by Ostara at 2:17 PM on June 24, 2011
My Sea Monkeys thrived at my office, but a cold snap killed them off because the heat wasn't on over the weekend. Is temperature likely to be an issue where you are?
posted by vickyverky at 2:22 PM on June 24, 2011
posted by vickyverky at 2:22 PM on June 24, 2011
I was coming here to suggest an ecosphere! I've had one on my desk for 2 1/2 years. Started out with 4 shrimp, and now down to 1, but it's lovely and interesting to look at.
posted by MrMoonPie at 2:34 PM on June 24, 2011
posted by MrMoonPie at 2:34 PM on June 24, 2011
Triops need to be pretty warm, and don't live long anyway.
posted by scruss at 3:23 PM on June 24, 2011
posted by scruss at 3:23 PM on June 24, 2011
It took me quite awhile to realize that my desktop goldfish were dying over long weekends because the building turned off the A/C. I was left with two large snails, Mario and Luigi, who made interesting low maintenance office pets. They enjoyed tooling around the tank, climbing the walls and roaming up and down the grassy plants. They lived for years; I still have Luigi's shell.
posted by carmicha at 4:44 PM on June 24, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by carmicha at 4:44 PM on June 24, 2011 [1 favorite]
Triops are interesting for sure, just know that they don't last much more than a month even with the best of care. For further reading, see this previous triops thread (you'll laugh! you'll cry! and you'll learn more about triops than you could have ever imagined).
posted by amyms at 5:47 PM on June 24, 2011
posted by amyms at 5:47 PM on June 24, 2011
My daughter raised some Triops. They were ok in a sort of creepy way but the water got really nasty pretty quickly and kind of smelled bad. You can't just pour all new water in there at once either.
They lasted about a month and then started eating each other. We ended up with one huge triops left and then about a week later it died too.
posted by howrobotsaremade at 7:21 PM on June 24, 2011
They lasted about a month and then started eating each other. We ended up with one huge triops left and then about a week later it died too.
posted by howrobotsaremade at 7:21 PM on June 24, 2011
I've had sea monkeys in my office for about a month and they're really fun, if a bit distracting. They do serve the purpose of giving me something to look forward to at work each day, especially in the beginning when they grow so fast.
posted by Fuego at 8:25 PM on June 24, 2011
posted by Fuego at 8:25 PM on June 24, 2011
This depends on whether other people have to visit your office. People are free to do all sorts of things at home that they can't do at work. Triops are the stuff of nightmares. If you work in a biology lab or a cockroach treadmill factory, it might not be a violation of an unspoken social contract to raise one. If one of my employees brought one of these things in, I'd ask them to immediately double-bag the whole enclosure in well-sealed trash bags and walk it outside of the building never to return. This is same thing I'd do if you wanted to keep a pet tarantula or ant farm or snake tank. In a shared workplace, this is not an involuntary opportunity for your coworkers to face their phobias head-on, it's a distraction.
posted by Gable Oak at 5:44 AM on June 25, 2011
posted by Gable Oak at 5:44 AM on June 25, 2011
If one of my employees brought one of these things in, I'd ask them to immediately double-bag the whole enclosure in well-sealed trash bags and walk it outside of the building never to return.
I seriously doubt that many people have phobias of sea monkeys. All the same, it would probably be better to just get a fish, if only that it would last longer. My boss keeps a beta fish at her desk and can plug the little tank into a USB port to aerate it.
posted by Lobster Garden at 6:47 AM on June 25, 2011
I seriously doubt that many people have phobias of sea monkeys. All the same, it would probably be better to just get a fish, if only that it would last longer. My boss keeps a beta fish at her desk and can plug the little tank into a USB port to aerate it.
posted by Lobster Garden at 6:47 AM on June 25, 2011
(Your title joke is horrible in the best way possible. Well done, you.)
I don't think triops would make great office pets. They're fun to watch but make an unattractive mess of their tank (which really needs to be bigger than those kits provide -- one gallon per adult triops is what I've read), and every month or so they die and you need to dry out the entire tank for two wweks before you can try hatching out the next generation. Ugly and a big hassle, basically, exactly what you don't want in an office.
Similarly, I would avoid ecospheres -- they're pretty, but drastically shorten the shrimp's lifespan from up to 20 years down to probably 2-3, which just seems cruel even if it is a shrimp. Given my username it should come as no surprise that I'm also against those horrible torture devices known as "betta kits," which leave an intelligent, curious animal trapped in a small space and constantly on the brink of drowning in its own filth. Sea monkeys might be fine in the kit they're sold with, though! I honestly have no idea.
Another idea, if you have the office space, time for research and funds, is to set up an actual mini aquarium. It'll cost more and require more research, but the end result will be longer lasting, have healthier inhabitants and require less maintenance. (The larger the tank, the slower water quality is affected by waste, assuming the same biomass.) In a 1-2.5 gallon tank you could easily keep some glass shrimp, cherry shrimp or a single african dwarf (not clawed!) frog without much trouble, because they produce so little waste. In a heated, filtered 5 gallon tank properly cycled (colonized with waste-munching bacteria -- easier than it sounds) you could keep a very happy betta.
posted by bettafish at 9:49 AM on June 25, 2011
I don't think triops would make great office pets. They're fun to watch but make an unattractive mess of their tank (which really needs to be bigger than those kits provide -- one gallon per adult triops is what I've read), and every month or so they die and you need to dry out the entire tank for two wweks before you can try hatching out the next generation. Ugly and a big hassle, basically, exactly what you don't want in an office.
Similarly, I would avoid ecospheres -- they're pretty, but drastically shorten the shrimp's lifespan from up to 20 years down to probably 2-3, which just seems cruel even if it is a shrimp. Given my username it should come as no surprise that I'm also against those horrible torture devices known as "betta kits," which leave an intelligent, curious animal trapped in a small space and constantly on the brink of drowning in its own filth. Sea monkeys might be fine in the kit they're sold with, though! I honestly have no idea.
Another idea, if you have the office space, time for research and funds, is to set up an actual mini aquarium. It'll cost more and require more research, but the end result will be longer lasting, have healthier inhabitants and require less maintenance. (The larger the tank, the slower water quality is affected by waste, assuming the same biomass.) In a 1-2.5 gallon tank you could easily keep some glass shrimp, cherry shrimp or a single african dwarf (not clawed!) frog without much trouble, because they produce so little waste. In a heated, filtered 5 gallon tank properly cycled (colonized with waste-munching bacteria -- easier than it sounds) you could keep a very happy betta.
posted by bettafish at 9:49 AM on June 25, 2011
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posted by cazoo at 2:11 PM on June 24, 2011