Living fossils

Not many species can claim this title but Triops certainly are one of them. They resemble Horseshoe crabs, but are much smaller. I first heard of them during a Invertebrate Zoology class and have been hooked ever since:)

Can you see three eyes;)

They live in shallow pools that dry out sometime during the season. Most species reproduce sexually (meaning you need both males and females if you want to breed them), but some species only have females that reproduce with parthenogenesis (females will lay eggs from which only females will hatch), so they don't actually need males (those do occur, but rarely). Another thing that is special about them is that their eggs are capable of surviving the dry period - diapause (when water evaporates, they stay in the sand and wait for water to fill the pond again). Scientists were able to hatch eggs that were dry for a decade (and older!).
Triops use their back legs (which work as gills) to get oxygen from the water and first pairs of legs to dig in the substrate in search of food. They also grow their entire life so they need to mould (shed their skin once it becomes too tight). This happens very often when they are small, but becomes infrequent when they age.

Triops mould

I ordered my first eggs from ebay 2 years ago (you can also buy a Trios kit in your store, but usually buying from breeders is better since you get way more hatchlings) and with that my trials started. For a creature that lives in muddy pools they can certainly be a handful! You have to watch this and that and they still won't hatch! It drives you mad:) In fact the more your try the less success you will have.
I found an awesome website www.thetriopsforum.com which offers great advice for beginners and more experience breeders. It really helps when your friends and familly are fed up with your constant whining how they just dont want to hatch:)

Can you see the eggsacks? 

Another think that happens quite often when you start buying eggs online is that you'll get a virus which will result in you buying eggs from multiple species even though you only have one aquarium. Those eggs will then wait in your drawer untill you grow bored of the current species you have and start a new one. I currently have eggs from four different species, but only keep the green aussie in my aquarium:)

Triops feeding on a piece of plant

I saved the best for last - most species of Triops only live for 1-3 months:) Comes really handy for students that would like to have an aquarium on campus but don't want to haul home the full one. You simply dry out the sand and try again when you are ready or have some spare time:)