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One Year Ago I Built an Ecosystem, This Happened

Vocab level: B2
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A year ago today, I built this little chunk of rainforest.
This is much more than a bedside tank.
It has evolved into a dense ecosystem teeming with life.
It is in this video where you can see both the brutality and beauty of mother nature.
Today, I will unveil to you the full history of the cannibal jungle in my bedroom.
The tank began as a summer project.
I built a custom background for the tank using some ghost wood, spray foam and silicone, nothing major.
The tank wouldn't be the same without it.
I built up some lava rock in the foreground.
This was to create the water area.
The back of the tank was then filled with some lica and substrate.
From here I planted the tank and it was complete.
I didn't realize I had created the groundwork for an ecosystem.
At the time, the only animals were these tiny garden snails that hitched along one of the plants.
As time went by, the plants started to grow in and moss began to appear.
The progression of the tank was slow but clearly evident.
Once mold appeared, I introduced various species of springtails into the tank.
They thrived in the humid environment.
I felt the tank was ready for a more complex life,
so I got some shrimp and Malaysian trumpet snails.
Those shrimp were shy but would always come out during feeding time.
As for the snails, they settled in right away.
Within just a few days I found baby snails scattered throughout.
To make the shrimp feel more at home, I added in some red root floater.
These plants acted as cover and made the shrimp feel secure.
After that, it didn't take long for the shrimp to get busy.
Here you can see a very pregnant shrimp.
She carries the eggs under her abdomen
and those tiny black dots are actually eyes.
There was a population boom and you could clearly see that in the time lapse.
About a month down the road, everything was still going smoothly, so I was ready to add in an apex predator:
the vampire crab.
Their eyes glow a menacing yellow which is how they get their name.
I started with only six of them.
When I added them to the tank, little did I know of the army they would become.
I gave them each a mealworm to feed upon.
This crab eats his food like a cup of takeout.
I always thought it was funny.
These crabs are semi-terrestrial, meaning they need both a land and water area to survive.
On land, they breathe using a thin layer of water on their shell.
If you look closely, you can see the water moving around their exoskeleton.
This one is even blowing bubbles.
The crabs often venture to the water in search of a meal.
They tried to hunt the shrimp but aren't very successful.
Two months later, the tank was still thriving.
The plants finally started to fill in the space and some of them developed crazy colors.
One day, I was baffled when I found baby crabs wandering around the tank.
They weren't much bigger than a sesame seed.
The babies had very effective camouflage as they blended right into their surroundings.
Here you can see him eating some algae.
The babies were an awesome surprise though I became concerned.
I feared the crabs would overpopulate and there would be way too many of them.
I needed a solution.
I needed a new predator.
That is where the morning gecko comes in.
I bought 3 adult females and I thought they would be the perfect tank mate.
The geckos immediately took up residence in the canopy.
The adult crabs were too big for them to hunt but the babies...
well, the babies could become an unfortunate meal.
Now it wasn't only geckos that were hunting the baby crabs.
The crabs hunted the crabs.
Here you can see a baby crab eating his own brother.
They were cannibals.
it showed how brutal nature can be.
As more time passed, the forest floor became much more than just a pile of dead leaves.
it became a refuge.
There were still these tiny snails who would wander in search of food.
More than just microfauna lived here,
it was home to the baby crabs.
They rarely ventured out to explore or to become someone else's meal.
As the crabs grew, they no longer needed the security of the forest floor.
They could climb into the canopy in search of food.
At this stage, they were too big to become a meal for one of the geckos.
I'd even see them peacefully sitting side by side.
In the canopy, the crabs found refuge in the bromeliads.
These plants hold many pools of water in their leaves which turned out to be a perfect hiding spot.
I'd often find them hiding in these pockets.
If I ever got too close they would quickly dive deeper into the plant.
The geckos also call the bromeliads home.
I'd find them tucked in between their leaves and they'd find shelter here when it rains.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the tank has rain.
The tank has these tropical storms five times a day.
The heavy rain brings out the geckos and you can even hear them talking to each other.
That clicking noise is actually the geckos communicating.
They are very social animals that like to be housed in groups.
Well, their group is about to get bigger because they had laid piles and piles of eggs.
This may come as a surprise because if you recall,
all the geckos I bought were female then how do they reproduce?
Well, this isn't just any ordinary gecko.
This type of gecko can make clones.
All you need is one gecko to start an entire population.
As the days went by, I began to find baby geckos all over the tank.
They were extremely quick and difficult to film.
Most of the time I would find them resting among the bromeliads or high up in the canopy.
This little guy was drinking off one of the leaves.
Funny little guys for sure!
And now this brings us to present day.
Like my hair, the tank looks nothing like it did a year ago and has become overgrown.
The diversity in leaf shape size and color is extremely variable.
The ecosystem has finally found balance where no animal outcompetes the other.
Many of the crabs have reached adulthood.
Here you can see a baby juvenile and adult crab in the palm of my hand.
The smallest crab doesn't have any of his adult coloration yet.
Right now, he's cleaning his eyes with his claws.
They are like mini windshield wipers.
Because the crabs don't have any eyelids, they have to manually keep their eyes clean.
You can see how the juvenile crab has developed some color on his eyes and they're now a deep orange.
I decided to give him a little treat and this is a blood worm.
He took it right out of my tongs and began to eat it.
His mouth was like a little meat grinder and he ate the entire thing.
And here is an adult crab.
He is clearly the biggest and most colorful of the three.
His massive claws were disproportionate to his tiny frame.
I tried feeding him a cricket but he pushed that away.
I then tried feeding him a blood worm and of course he didn't hesitate to eat that.
He ate the whole thing in under a minute.
The geckos were thriving and now I had well over 30.
I didn't feel comfortable leaving them in the big tank so I built them their own setup.
I'll be sure to make a video on them in the future.
The tank as a whole is definitely looking at its best.
Beauty lies in its constant evolution and change.
Every day, there is new growth, a new plant or even a new generation.
This tank is not the only project I've been working on.
Right now, I'm building a 100 gallon polidarium, a saltwater ecosystem
and I'm keeping a colony of wasps.
So definitely stay on the lookout for that.
Now here's a full playlist of all the videos I have on this tank.
Feel free to check that out.
Thank you for watching and I'll see you in the next one.