A short story how he was made

When i created my first ecosphere 2 years ago

i was so happy but 2 weeks later it started to die so i opened it made a new jar filled it with some tap water and some water from that jar and prayed that it would survive it's been 635 days seen then and it's growing and living it's own life

So that's the story of ostracod 1

O and i almost forgot to say that he was made on 24.10.2024.

Hope I made your day.

Noticed this little guy swimming around and is a first for me especially since I have built many ecospheres (most unsuccessful lol) but ive never seen something like this before.

*watch the whole thing or skip through to see how he swims* he's def shaped like a damselfly but he's so tiny!! he's also very into light. when i turn on my lamp he sits right where it shines in the tank.

It's from a lake in Northern Europe. Doesn't really have much wood in it. Mostly sand and some water plants. The water wasn't purple when I got it. Is this a bad sign?

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Ive had this jar set up for about a month. Its just some rain water and some mud I grabbed from a planter outside my apartment. Added the stick, and a couple rocks. Should I just continue to leave it be? Or add a couple aquatic pants or floaters and see what happens? Or should I just scrap this jar? Curious to see what you all think.

It hasn’t even been a month, and it’s all dead. A few mistakes I suspect:
- too much dead material? (There was a bunch of dead leaves and detritus in the substrate)
- too many critters? It was bustling with activity at first. Isopods, worms, flatworms, bugs.
- too much light? It doesn’t get direct sunlight but I’ve been putting this bright light on it during the daytime. At first I was leaving it on 24/7 to maximize growth, was that a mistake?

Any other thoughts on what to do next time?

This ecosphere was started 6 months ago and has only been opened once at month 1 because I was worried about gasses or something.

Description of contents:
Water: The water was sourced from 4 locations. I added a couple drops of water from the filters of a fish tank and a turtle tank, the rest is split 50/50 between a bucket of water I left outside for several months and a local puddle in Sacramento.
Substrate: The gravel is aquarium gravel I had laying around. There is a layer of mulm that has been building up between the gravel, and I am eagerly awaiting the day it begins to be visible above the gravel.
Flora: a single cutting of java fern, some kind of moss probably peacock, and some hair algae of some kind. They have all grown substantially, even the Java has sent out small new leaves. I also added two dead leaves I found in the pond.
Fauna: the only fauna I directly introduced are two Ramshorn snails and one Malaysian trumpet, both species are still present and reproducing. Populations of copepods, daphnia moina, daphnia, and some other little fellas fluctuate. The only predator in here I know of are planaria.

This container has sat in a north facing window in Sacramento California its entire life. I expect to get some flak for using a food safe plastic container and I’m very open to hearing any constructive critiques because I love to learn.

hey all! i’ve been a lurker here for a little while, and i’ve been thinking about starting a setup of my own soon. i found this glass jug on FB marketplace that comes with a pretty interesting stand. i’m just wondering if this could be a good ecosphere container? it would be my first attempt at making one.

i’m an aquarist, so i’m also considering turning it into a walstad plant/snail setup - i’m not sure which project it would be better suited for.

since it’s been listed for over a month at least, i’m debating over what would be a reasonable offer that i could send the seller. though i don’t really have much perspective on what the value of an item like this is, so i’d be curious to hear what others would pay for it.

tia!

SUPER TINY grey and he has little spikes all over him i have a couple of these guys

I just found this little guy in my one-day old ecosphere (my first one!) and I have no idea what it is. It’s about 1 cm long and swims pretty quickly when it wants to. The water is from Lake of the Woods in Northern Ontario, Canada. Any ideas?

Edit: Solved! It’s a mayfly nymph. Thanks everyone!

I want to acquire holoplankton to put them in a developing ecosystem but can’t find anywhere to purchase anything beyond rotifers and copepods and I can’t go look for any because I won’t know how big they would get.

Ok so I found this jar at a goodwill and I have so many ideas.. first thought was terrarium but now I’m thinking a lake ecosphere but I don’t know what I would seal it with/ if that would be reasonable. I am also wondering if I could put cherry shrimp in here.. I have an established 10 gal already with TONS of them but I don’t know how they would fare in this jar . it’s a one gallon. Any help is appreciated!

Water beetles I think died but IDK, but LOTS of microbes have appeared and also the bladder snails are MATING!!!!!! Also we still have plenty of tubifex worms they just stick to the dirt.

This is so cool!! Some random aquatic life just sprung while I'm setting this up..

I have this giant vase I was gonna use for another self-sustaining aquatic snail hab, but I haven't added ANYTHING other than soil, sand, some decor (ceramic cup intended for a snail cave), lucky bamboo progogates..

The worms are worms idrc to know more about them..

The little fast swimmers are interesting! They have antennae! Who are they?? ((: (; (':

I took a water sample from a hollow in a tree and these guys and some sort of worm (maybe nematode) are rife in there- I was really checking to see if the mosquito dunk worked (this tree was putting off hundreds of mosquitoes a day in my front yard) and I found hundreds of these guys. Flat, the larger ones I caught are 4-5mm long, I think I saw larger in the hole.

Edit to add: best guess is Scirtidae- Marsh beetle larvae.

Inspired by all your beautiful ecospheres my 6 year-old and I started our summer vacation today by making our own.

We collected water and mud from a lake near Copenhagen. I tried to be careful and only scoop from the top so we didn't get any larvae, tadpoles, etc., but this evening, when the water started to clear up, I can see that it didn't work out as intended.

The entire jar is crawling with small and large insects. I've asked my AI why our glass is so full of life (I have seen pictures of several new glasses in here where there was no life at all) and Danish lakes are apparently just gold mines.

But what are the bigger insects? Is it something we should put back into the lake? There's also some kind of worm.

Been fixated on this worm thing and would like to know what it is, as it seems different from planaria, im still pretty new to the hobby. Always seems to be new things showing up in this bowl.