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?
by Accurate-Pay-7006
2 Comments
Bladder snail is fine. I always start jars and even fishtanks with plants and bladder or ramshorn snails. I swear, bladder snails will survive a nuclear winter! They are strict detritus eaters, meaning they only eat dead and rotten stuff, never live plants. That’s their natural environment…yuck and muck.
What I don’t see is a a real plant, just algae? You need a real aquatic plant in there, preferably a rooted one. Algae will not help here, at all.
Here’s why:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Ecosphere/comments/13hf5rr/newbies_after_having_seen_one_post_after_another/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Ecosphere/comments/13hf5rr/newbies_after_having_seen_one_post_after_another/)
Disregard it if u have one in there that’s just not visible yet through the murky water.
This is vile. Dump this back where you got it, it reminds me of the kingdom of grass/evil bopping with each other in their dark worlds 24/7. Start with local creekbed rocks (add some gemstones and marbles for oool effect) and a few clean, ideally edible if you can find them, plants. They will hatch snails on their own and grow more fitting greenery with clearer water. Also use filtered water, not the creek water with pond scum with pollution etc. Alternatively a spring if you are blessed to find one, or clear river stream water, the rocks and silt clean it as it rolls after so many feet, up to 100.
Also very important, choose a sunny spot on the floor, a stand, or place that doesn’t get bumped/irritated and leave it be. Same goes for house plants, the more you move them unnecessarily, the unhappier they are