When we moved out of OKC and gave up all the tanks, I missed them—so for my birthday in 2000, I got a little ecosphere egg with five little shrimp in it. And a twiggy branch. It’s a sealed system. It’s got algae, bacteria, and some tiny, tiny shrimp that live in a balanced system. It needs to be kept reasonably warm, never hot, given light, but not direct sunlight. And they’re active little things.
Eventually, of course, we did get fish tanks. And a 5000 gallon pond. But I’ve always taken care of that little egg, kept it from getting too cold or too hot. And stable. They appreciate not being moved about or disturbed too much. We lost three of the shrimp the first year, but the two remaining soldiered on. I lost one of the two a couple of years ago. The egg survived the 8 day winter blackout. But alas, the last shrimp died this spring. Aged sixteen years at least. Pretty good for a shrimp about as long as a cigarette end is wide. Pretty good for an artificial contained ecosystem.
Irony is, my college roomie and I palled around with the son of one of the German rocket scientists. His project was space station life support. We kept fish tanks. So we used to talk a lot on how to sustain a sealed system with scats (a fish that eats algae) and light. Balance was a pita. But the scats were just too large, and balancing their eating with the resources light could produce was a little too hard. We all graduated and went our ways.
But when I saw this egg back-when, I was absolutely intrigued.
Well, they had a sale on them. So I got myself another egg. Four shrimp in this one. And a twig. And some sand. I’ve set them at my work station (I’ll have to move them to a warmer spot come winter). There’s a spot of green algae that’s popped up. But that’s not what they eat. I saw one of the smaller ones on the glass without the normal white coating on his little front claws—at which they’re ordinarily busy. But he began waving his claws over the glass, and collecting white onto his forelimbs, bacteria, which are too small to see until he masses them together. Then he’ll go perch on his twig with the others. I don’t know their species well enough to know whether he eats the bacteria or whether they provide something that he absorbs. But he’s certainly industrious about it. Because he’s a crustacean, his shell is probably too hard to absorb directly, but possibly they exude something he likes.
I’ll have to find out his species and do some research.
Anyway, the egg is thriving. Getting sixteen years out of one is uncommon, and pretty well a record: the old ones Ecoglobe has on their premises are a year younger. Most demise in 5, probably due to people not taking care of them or moving them about too much.
The species is or is closely related to: Halocaridina rubra, also called Volcano Shrimp, a Hawaiian species that lives in brackish pools. Info says they eat algae, but that’s not what I’m observing. They’re never at the algae patch, but they are scraping the glass sides. Their observed lifespan is from 14 to 20 years, so I think my last two shrimp fared pretty well, granted I don’t know how old they were when I got them.
Maybe the variety of algae they like isn’t the green stuff you see? I know you can get brown and red algae too, which are harder to see in thin films than the green schmutz. You might have a variety pack in there.
I’m pretty sure I do. It would make thorough sense. But what they’re scraping up is translucent white, which is much more like the clear-ish bacterial sheets that pop up in marine tanks. If that dime-sized spot of green is common hair algae, I hardly know anything that really likes it. It could be in there simply to oxygenate the water. Everything in balance. Shrimp poo to feed the bacteria and algae, etc, etc, quite a trick. And multiple algaes and a very careful analysis of the bacteria to know what they’re letting in is a good bet.
I used to have guppies in a 1 gallon bowl. I found that if I left it in the sun, the water would turn green, and that I never needed to feed my guppies. Well. Until they had babies, and the babies became big enough to eat the algae down. I think your eco-egg is delightful!
Any chance of a photo or two, CJ?
Also, I’d think something like that would be brilliant on something like a spacecraft – fictional OR real. I wonder if anything like that’s been taken up onto the ISS as part of an astronaut’s personal stuff?
Looks like the ISS has done fishtanks ( https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/aquatic.html ) and lots with plants. I don’t see anything about sealed systems like this though.
OT! My stepfather is in very poor health, which distresses my mother greatly. Thus I have moved from New Hampshire back to the family land north of New Orleans.
Was this a ‘pull up stakes and move permanently’ or a ‘help until my assistance is no longer needed, then go back North’? That must have been very disruptive, not to mention the family turmoil. Best of luck.
I rather expect that it will be permanent. Mama gave me 20 years, I should give them back. She’s 81, I’m 61; we don’t usually live more than four years past our century…
Tommie,
Where were you in NH? I grew up in Durham (on the seacoast, for non-New Hampshire-ites, and where the University of New Hampshire is).
CommentNashua
Well, it’s a good and kind move and I wish the best for you.
What was it the Romans used to do? Act like the kind of person you aspire to be, wasn’t it?
BTW, does Vespasian mean wasp-like?
It does.
Happy Star Wars day, dear salads.
Your description intrigued me, so I looked at them on Amazon. According to their website, average life span is “2-3 years.” 16 years sounds amazing to me!
Now I want one.
Plus some spider plants (I’ve been re-reading the Foreigner series and can’t get Bren’s cabin on the ship out of my mind).
My spider plants are blooming at the moment, both home and work, so this might be a good time to acquire a few spiderlings. Just ask around, you shouldn’t have to pay money for them, they are ubiquitous. (Or don’t even ask, my mother was pretty sneaky at pinching off cuttings of things) Spider plant flowers are a lot of effort for totally innocuous, but you own them for the curtain of greenery, not the floral display.
I sailed on such a ship, but it was the ferry between Naples and Capri—the ‘wine-dark sea’ was definitely in effect, I was climbing to the upper deck on an open-air stairway when the ferry rolled mightily, and veered a bit—I believe that constitues a ‘yaw’— and I fortunately had a good grip on the stair rail with my right hand. I spun outward, leaning, with only my right foot on the stairs—and had a glorious view of the sea surging under us. Only the sailors could walk upright in such a wild motion—they almost looked as if they were under their own gravity, while the rest of us just kept ‘one hand for the ship’. The inner cabin, a large common room, had those plants all around in a continuous planter above the windows. So as the ferry went through these gyrations, these green curtains of spiderlets would sway wildly. It was quite a sight, and so I lent it to Bren in his voyage.
It was a fine loan! Now Cajeiri has co-opted it and I like that as well.