My triops are all doing great (still babies). They've been alive for several days now...

So, a few days ago, I fed them their pellets for the first time. Surprisingly, they refused to eat any of them. (The pellets are larger than they are.)

Within a day, all of the pellets turned green and started growing white long hairs. It's really disgusting!!! Can someone tell me what's going on? What I should do? Should I take the pellets out.... or what?!

Thanks,
Kim

Yes! Take out the pellets.

Thanks, I did. XD

Oh my god. I just realized something, this morning. All of the things that I thought were triops in my tank, were adult sea monkeys. I have baby triops in there now....

So I have a tank full of water bug things, adult sea monkeys and baby triops.

(I have no clue how any sea monkeys got in there. >.< Oh well. They seem happy together.)

They aren't 'sea-monkeys' (which are also known as brine shrimp, Artemia sp.), they are a freshwater species of fairy shrimp .

They often come included with triops eggs in the detritus packets, because they live in the same temporary pools that the triops eggs are harvested from.

Unlike triops, they need fine particles of food to filter out the water, in a triops tank they typically feed of the free-floating algae in the water, which in turn is feeding off the nutrients coming from the triops waste. The triops will most likely eat the fairy shrimp though, only once have I ever had a fairy shrimp survive a decent length of time with triops, and when I say 'decent' I mean 3 weeks.

Btw, If I were you, Id do a 25-50%water change on that triops tank
Though not 100% necessary and a little over cautious, its marginally safer to use the same water you used hatching them when they are very young - as it's parameters will be closer to that of the water in the tank .

If you cant, just use dechlorinated tap water like you would with a fish tank, or buy another bottle of spring water, whichever you find easier.

I guess that's what they are. lol At the bottom of some of their tales it ends like this 3, and with some... the tail ends like this \|/. Are those characteristics of fairy shrimp?

And how do I do a water change, without killing any of the sea life?

Thanks soooo much,
Kim

p.s. What are those sphere like animals in there that just like.... float up, and then float down in the tank? There are tons of them now.

Yep, cant remember the name of the species atm though, there's two species that come from triops eggs packets, the one you have and the larger beavertail fairy shrimp.

How do you do a water change? Why the same way as you would do on a fish tank, remove some old water, then put new safe stuff in . You can do it carefully using a cup if the tanks very small .

Those sphere like creatures are more than likely daphnia, also called "water fleas". If you look closely they actually look like a weird oversized flea. They are sometime distributed in the triops detritus along with your triops eggs and sometimes fairy shrimp eggs. They make for a nice food source for your triops. Also, if they start to turn a redish color then what you are looking at is a female daphnia that is about to lay eggs. They tend to breed like rabbits, which is good. I at one time didn't need to feed my triops for a few weeks because I had so many daphnia and fairy shrimp that there was a constant supply of food in the tank. And they will eat up algae and bacteria so they are keeping your water clean as well as feeding your triops.