The most amazing pet ever!

Just add water and you will have instant living Dino-Pets!

 Billabong Bugs spring to life and grow literally before your very eyes, doubling in size every day. As they grow, watch these amazing three-eyed dinosaurs perform underwater aqua-batics. Also watch in amazment as they loop to loop, chase each other around their tank, and swim upside down whilst waving to you with their strange little tentacles.

 WATCH THEM GROW…

When you add your Magic BugDust to the water, the eggs begin to hatch, releasing the developing embryos. The little Billabong Bug embryos quickly grow (within several hours) into a "nauplius" larval stage, which is a filter feeding period for your Billabong Bugs. This means that they will spend most of their time swimming about in the water. At this stage, the nauplii are also attracted to a bright light, so if you hold the light source next to the container, the nauplii will swim toward the light making them easier to see.

WHAT ARE BILLABONG BUGS?
Billabong Bugs are actually crustaceans (a relative of crabs, hermit crabs and crayfish) known to scientists as Triops australiensis. They have not two, but three eyes! In fact, the name “Triops” actually comes from the Greek words meaning “three eyes”. If you look closely you will indeed see that your Amazing Billabong Bugs have three little eyes.

Billabong Bugs are prehistoric creatures, and are sometimes referred to as living Dinosaurs or Dinosaur shrimp. They are closely related to the now extinct Trilobite, an ancient ocean dweller that is often found fossilized. This is another reason that Billabong Bugs are sometimes called living fossils or mini dinosaurs. However they actually come from a time that predates the dinosaurs!

Billabong Bugs are so old in fact, that when they first appeared on the Earth all the continents that we know today were joined together in one giant land mass known as Pangaea. Over the eons this giant land mass broke apart. As large pieces of Pangaea floated away they formed new continents. One of them was called Gondwanaland, which included Australia, Antarctic, Africa and South America. All of this change caused the temperatures and weather to fluctuate, and some people think that this combined with a devastating meteorite or comet impact was too much for the Dinosaurs. They had no way to cope with the lack of water and changing climate and so slowly became extinct.

Why did Billabong Bugs outlive the Dinosaurs? Billabong Bugs produce a very special egg that can actually journey through time! Months, years and even decades can go by before they need to hatch again. There is a name for this time traveller’s trick - it’s called “suspended animation”. The official name scientists have given this process is called “Cryptobiosis” which is latin for the words “hidden life”. You might be surprised to know that many living things employ this method of time travel. For example, nearly all plants produce seeds and most seeds can be stored for some time before germinating. Amazingly, Billabong Bug eggs have been documented to remain asleep for more than 25 years and still hatch out. Scientists think that this is what helped Billabong Bugs to survive the extreme temperatures and long droughts that spelt the end for the poor old Dinosaurs. In other words, Billabong Bugs slept while the dinosaurs slowly disappeared.

WHAT IS A ‘BILLABONG’?
What exactly is a Billabong? A Billabong is a waterhole (some people call them clay pans) that usually dries up outside of the rainy season. If it’s a Billabong that does not dry up, you’re not likely to find any Billabong Bugs in there. This is because there’s a very good chance that there will be fish in there instead (or a maybe even a Bunyip!). Billabong Bugs make good fishy tucker, so the two are never found together. This is why they usually only occur out in the middle of the outback, where it’s very dry and rains only occasionally, and fish are few and far between.

A birds eye view of some billabong country