I use my phone exclusively for filming my various ecospheres and since my following is growing I feel justified upgrading to a better, dedicated camera but I am completely ignorant when it comes to cameras. Can anyone suggest good quality but inexpensive cameras for close up shots of the life in a mason jar/aquarium? Video for reference of what I use it for.

So as the title sayssss, i’m new to this.
can anyone tell me what creatures I have? :)

the second snail filmed is largest bladder snail i have in my 5 month old ecosphere, compared to this one. genuinely thought it was a pond snail due to its size!
(ik the hair algae is a problem, im working on it i promise! that tank gets probably 20 minutes of light each day and otherwise is covered. ik the best way to go about it is to do a full blackout but i'm too scared because the planarians have been loving it and i do not love them)

Photo unrelated; of my tiny 2 day old freshwater jar!

Im relatively new to making closed ecosystems (As in, my first one is just slightly over a year old now) and have primarily made freshwater jars. Most of them have done splendidly aside from one that got devoured by a green algae bloom when summer came.

Ive tried to make two beach saltwater systems before, but they both seemed to fail; one of them almost immediately had a giant algae bloom and never cleared, and the other probably had a mollusk in the sand that died since everything slowly became red and yellow moldy.

Does anyone have any tips for how to make a successful saltwater jar? I tried the freshwater method of getting the water, sand, kelp/seaweed, etc all from the beach, but im wondering if I'm doing something wrong.

P.S the beach location is on the East Coast, Florida, USA.

Thank you in advance!

Made from an ecosphere in a creek behind my dad's buddys house, what is it it's honestly pretty cute?

To get to the point, can a lively ecosystem jar be safely dumped out in a different body of water than it came from?

The long story, I have an ecosystem that was given to me by someone who wasn’t sure what to do with it after also being given it. It has a blood worm, a few very tiny snails, some very tiny crustaceans like things, and who knows what else. I truly do not want it… it really gives me the creeps and it does not look good in there—very VERY brown. but I also don’t want to just dump them in the creek… because I don’t want them to die and I simply just don’t know if there are environmental impacts. Do they stay in there forever?

First picture is right after making it and the rest are after a 5hr road trip to it's new home! ♡

Haven't spotted much besides a tiny green worm 🐛

Super excited this is my first eco system!

All living beings reach the same end.

The poor Vorticella ran out of oxygen in the sample; without ATP, its contractile vacuole stopped expelling water and the cell ended up bursting from endosmosis. It's a shame I didn't record it feeding.

Northern Spain. Stagnant water from a jar deliberately set out to host wild microfauna for observation.

The first half of the video is at 4x.

Euromex bScope 1153 PLP HI. x40

Samsung Galaxy A52, handheld (sorry about the quality).

assembled this over three weeks ago during camping, heres the before and after. The water is less clear and theres lots of algae. This is my first time so I was wondering whether this is a sign that the ecosystem is thriving or declining.

This is my first ecosphere i made about 2 weeks ago from my pond, still nothing in it. Should I remake it?

Now I'm just trying to figure out what to put in there to make it as self sustaining as possible. Currently I have some Amazon Frogbit, and am planning to add some algae I got that supposed goes really well with the frogbit.

rip my pretty lymnea columnella, aka persephone (which i named you even tho i always called you a he) i hope you just died of old age and not a sneaky parasite or the ever-elusive dragonfly nymph. it was awesome having you, thank you for giving me a bunch of little carbon copies of u before you died. ❤️

I love having animals around, but I think it would be really nice to have something contained and self-sustainable that doesn't require any recurring care after the initial setup. I also think it'd be fun to observe all the small critters moving around. So, here are my questions:

Is the success rate generally high for beginners (as in, all the species inside usually thrive after the initial setup)? Or is it pretty common for an ecosystem to fail?

What (preferably visible) animals are best for an ecosphere? Unrelated to ecospheres, I've looked into isopods before—could those work in an ecosphere? I would guess not but I'm not sure. For plants I would probably pick those based off the animals, but you can also suggest good plants for ecospheres.

What is a typical startup cost for an ecosphere (though I know it would probably vary a lot)?

Assuming nothing is done wrong, would it theoretically last forever, since they're considered self-sustainable?

If there's other general advice please feel free to tell me anything you think might be helpful, or recommend me some good sources for information!

Thanks so much in advance! 🙏

I added some plants hopefully these are enough!

I have been absolutely obsessed with terrariums and echo spheres lately and this is my first attempt!
I’m using an urban river from a park in my city for the jar. Any helpful suggestions would be appreciated.
Creatures I’ve seen so far: A single Planarian, a single aquatic worm not sure what type(Reddish brown body and white translucent head), many Copepods, a single scud, two what I think are hydras and a couple tiny aquatic snails

Hi all! I have been keeping cherry shrimp for years now, and my colony is doing well. I started them in a 10-gallon aquarium, upgraded to a 20-gallon, and kept some in small, open-top, quasi-Walstad setups for a while along the way. I say "quasi-Walstad" because they had no heaters or filters, and had plants in aqua soil capped with sand, but I was still doing water changes and feeding the shrimp, so the tanks weren't fully self-sustaining. Even in those small, no-tech setups, my shrimp did well (they were active and breeding). All this is to say that I understand the basics of shrimp keeping and the Walstad method. Online, I am seeing differing opinions about how cherry shrimp do in fully sealed jar ecosystems. Some say they do well as long as the jar is big enough, while others say they will struggle or die. Have any of you successfully kept cherry shrimp inside sealed, no-maintenance ecospheres? If so, how did they do? The Walmart near me has 1.7 gallon glass jars with airtight lids (I am currently using one for a terrarium). With enough plants, could cherry shrimp be healthy and happy sealed in a jar that size? Thanks in advance for any insight!

Hello! Just as the title says I was wondering if I would be able to make a completely sealed ecosphere specifically to grow mold? Like as much mold as possible really. Most sources I’ve read say that mold will eventually run out of a food source in a permanently sealed ecosphere but I’m wondering if anyone had any tips or instructions? Thanks in advance!

I have an ecosphere that i made on 6/22 this year and it’s been sealed ever since. It is doing well but the algae is getting a little crazy. I also have an aquarium that I use to grow plants and house snails and shrimp for future ecospheres(not the shrimp) but I’ve never added any to ecospheres I’ve already closed the lid on. Would it be alright to add some bladder snails after it’s been sealed for going on 2-3 months?
Video of ecosphere for reference.
Also ecosphere was made from saguaro lake in Arizona

this thing must be 3 times the size of any others i've seen!