One of the new and interesting things we receintly brought into the shop is a kit that allows you to hatch out the most interesting little shrimp I have seen in a while, larger than a "Sea-money" and easier to keep they are called Triops!
Information:
Triops, sometimes called tadpole, dinosaur or shield shrimp, are a small
group of crustaceans that are in the Branchiopoda group that are found in
temporary bodies of fresh or brackish water. Sometimes they are sold in
'Sea-Monkey' like kits in shops, they are often billed as "living
fossils".
This name is well earned; this truly ancient group has survived virtually
unchanged for roughly three hundred million years. The oldest triops fossils
date back to the Carboniferous Paleozoic and the world's oldest known living
animal species is the european triops,
Triops cancriformis.
T. cancriformis fossils date back 200 million years ago to the Upper
Triassic age. There were triops swimming around in pools of water when the
first dinosaurs walked the Earth, and now 65 million years after the last
dinosaur took a breath, the Triops are still here!
The most common species of triops you can buy over the counter is the
American
Triops longicaudatus (though other species are often sold on
online auction sites). This is a more golden colored animal and usually grows
slightly smaller than
Triops cancriformis and requires a touch warmer
water temperature to live in. It is however a lot younger in the fossil
records, dating back to the Cretaceous-Maastrichtian period (about 70 Million
years).
Triops cancriformis has been seen in the wild up to 11cm (4.5")
in length (not including the tail). But it's more usual to see this species in
a tank grow up to 8cm (3") in length. The average
Triops longicaudatus
will grow up to 6cm (2.5") in a tank.
Source: http://mytriops.com/articles/triops_intro.stm
