r/Ecosphere

Yesterday I created my first ecosphere in a jar from the local river. Sediment, plants and water are all from the same river in the same spot, the only thing that was not in the river was the sticks at the top. I’ve seen 2 creatures since creating it less than 24 hours ago, the little guy in the picture and a ‘water worm’ (unsure of the correct name). I’ve since inspected this morning to find this little guy not moving and seemingly lifeless. Can anybody tell me what it is, and what I’ve done wrong?

I feel like a mother right now. I think it’s huge and I want to name it… any suggestions?

800 × | neemsar water | ESAW MM0 SERIES MICROSCOPE USED.

The way she moves is just so beautiful.

This is repost from 2 years ago btw.

What happened: I removed this planarian by sucking it off the glass (in my shrimp tank) with a syringe. In the process it got ripped into 3 pieces.

In this video you see just the head moving around but I didn't get to film the full regeneration of that one. It did however made it into a full worm again.

The second and third parts are shown after the chapter with the head. The third part did not make it but the second one also turned into it's own fully grown flatworm after 24 hours.

As freaky as this is, nature is soooo damn cool, isn't it???

context this bottle is over 3 years old and i had just opened it to add more water so the snails could eat up some old dried up duckweed from a year ago, there used to be lots of copepods but i accidentally left the bottle out with the window shade pressed against it during summer more than a yr ago. bladder(?) snails took over as well as this hair moss or wtv looking thing n since adding more water about a week ago its started to push up past the neck. never looked into what it actually is so if any big brains got some ideas id greatly appreciate it. oh also the snails too i can take a closer picture if needed, majority of them are scuba diving in the poopypelagic zone

Swift SW350, Galaxy S24

Couple of those things were floating in my tank. I have ottos, bamboo and amano shrimps. Some told me it's planaria, some say it's surely not.

this was not in my jar when i left 3 days ago, the leaf has been dead for awhile so i dont think its coming from that. if u can see, it is also at the top of the leaf rather than the base, where the stem would be.
if u need more info lmk. i'm getting pretty good at identifying things on my own but i can't even begin to describe this thing? lol

I’m a graphic designer, so it felt like a shame not to have a nice bag for hunting trips. So here it is — my new bag! I also made a matching T-shirt :)

Have a great day! Hope I inspired someone.

this is my second attempt at an ecosphere, the first was a creek sample that died in 2 weeks, mainly bc i accidentally left it outside when traveling i think, and bc at the time the weather was harsh and going from 80 degrees to freezing.

Anyway, this time i took a sample from a pond! i appear to have one adult bladder snail (in the video he is skimming the surface) and several little babies. as you can see, there are LOTS of ostracods.
last night i noticed approximately 10 little white worms on the glass and was interested to see what they were. i found out they're planarians. i also had a little snail leech. i panicked, i know we're supposed to let the jars run their course but my adult snail was getting plotted on and it made me cringe to see, so i took out all the planarians i could find with tweezers, being as careful as possible to get them in one piece, or take all the segments out. i also got the leech. the rest ran away (i guess they're smart!) ive see a few still in there coming and going. Ik ostracods have a rep for harrassing snails, and planarians are some of their biggest opps. do you guys think i did damage to the flow of the ecosystem? and do you think my snails stand a chance in this environment, now that there are less planarians?