Biosphere Post Numero Uno (By Karissa G., Karissa C., Jade, and Thinh

On April 11th 2016, we all became adoptive parents of Mr. Crabs the shrimp and Ellie the snail. With new additions to the family, we need to create a home for them. The features of their new crib included:

• 111.13 g of Soil
• 371.87 g of Gravel
• 100 mL of Nutrient Water (with the remaining being tap water)
• 2 mL of Anabaena
• 2 mL of Stentor
• 1 Mermaid Plant
• 1 Floating Fern
• 15 Daphnia
• 1 Shrimp
• 1 Snail.

Day One, April 11th: Here you can Mr. Crabs and Ellie in their new home. Unfortunately, the gravel didn't weigh down the soil enough so things got a little crazy. It was too murky to get a pic of the new additions. Only time would tell how well these combinations would all work out together. 

Day 10, April 20th: The soil has finally settled and the water still looks extremely clear. Mr. Crabs and Ellie seem very happy, but no sign of the Daphnia. It is possible that we have a very un-picky shrimp and he just happened to eat all of them (Don't worry, I googled it. It is possible for shrimp to eat the daphnia).

Day 15, April 25th: Happy Snail? Check. Happy Shrimp? Check.

Not much change over this weekend, All is good in the neighborhood.

Day 22, May 2nd: As you can see there is algae beginning to grow on the side of the jar. Why is this? Obviously the shrimp has gotten a bit lazy with cleaning his home. Maybe he ate too much, and that is also why he shed his exoskeleton as we can see in the second picture. Although he maybe not be cleaning the entire jar, it has obviously not stopped his growing. But where has the snail gone?

Day 24, May 4th: In the end, the water doesn't too terrible, still pretty clear considering we have been new parents for almost a month now. We still see the algae growing on the side. Small green dots growing on the side where the sun was hitting, and slightly on the roots of the floating fern. In the last picture, we can see we have a large, happy, healthy shrimp. Sadly though, we discovered the fate of Ellie. We can see Mr. Crabs paying his respects to the empty shell of Ellie. It would seem that she did not fare as well as the shrimp, but in all fairness, she could have already been an old soul when we met her. RIP Ellie, you are in a better place now. Over all, it would seem our little home did pretty well, but there may been something else we could have added to help keep the snail alive so that the algae could have been prevented more...But more on the later.