Welcome to My Worlds!
Since 2023 I’ve been dabbling in antkeeping and ecosphere creation! It’s a fun, accessible, creative hobby I think more people should be introduced to. This section serves to be a log of all my “worlds” – ant colonies, ecospheres, jarrariums, etc… for all to view and learn from.
About the Worlds
Ant colonies are exactly as they sound, a community of ants! My ant colony receives regular maintenance and care (as all colonies should) and ends up occupying most of my time.
Ecospheres are sealed terrestrial environments that form a complete, self-sustaining ecosystem. Ecospheres contain primarily plant mass as well as some decomposers. They make great decorations!
Jarrariums are sealed aquatic environments (jar + aquarium = jarrarium)! In my experience they are harder to start due to the initial death/ammonia spike, but it’s so rewarding to watch microorganisms swim around in their tiny world!
Latest Update: Nittany Jar Teeming With Life
After several weeks in my dorm windowsill, Nittany Jar is looking fantastic and filled with diverse life! It has a health population of fully aquatic isopods, snails, and sewage worms, as well as many other micro-animals. I believe it also has some kind of micro shrimp and a glass worm/slug.
This jar has impressed me so much that I have decided to open and aerate it periodically, and even clean the glass, all in an attempt to maintain equilibrium. It’s too pretty to run as an experiment!
In the past 2 days the isopods have chewed through the stem of the plant and now their food source is floating at the top; they’re cute, not smart! Luckily it was pretty trivial to push the plant back into the dirt. It will die now of course, but the pods will still have food while I source a new plant.
