December 28, 2008

It's been going really slow lately... Not much change at all... The fern seems to be doing well. The ammount of dead leaves and stems on it seem to be diminishing slowly. It must like the tank...

Wednesday, Dec. 17 2008

It's been a while. Not too much has changed though... I've seen a bit less of John lately. He's been sleeping more in the fern. The beetle is still living in the end of the log. One of the holding tank lizards died... I'm not sure why... Other than that though, not much has really changed at all...

Monday December 8 2008

Ok so once again it's been too long. The lizards have been out a lot lately. I have noticed some new grass growing though beyond where the grass was growing before. This is a surprise to me, I would have thought that grass would have grown wherever it could have already and not be able to spread... just a thought. I did also notice the beetle is still out and about.

Dec. 1/08

So this moring I noticed there are a fair few dead crickets. There are three dead, full grown crickets. This is good news though because crickets die once they breed. I also noticed several tiny pinhead crickets running around. I'm hoping that this means there are more baby crickets sleeping, since I'm relatively sure that crickets are noctournal.

So this is great news! The crickets are breeding!

Nov. 29/08

I woke up this morning to find both the lizards in the Eco tank sleeping perfectly ballanced on the fronds of the fern, like little iguannas. This does make me wonder if I'm getting real natural responses out of them... would they be so comfortable if they had some predators like wild lizards? of course that's pretty much irrelivant to the project and there's no way I would ever test that theory without actually going to Asia to research them in the wild. (Something I'd personally love to try).

I also noticed a fairly large beetle in there. Probably about a centimeter long in total. He must have come from the dirt... But he looks a lot like a superworm beetle. Maybe one snuck past me when I was initially setting up the tank....
We'll see.

Thursday, November 27 '08

So I didn't post anything yesterday because there was nothing to post... No change no sightings of crickets or anything like that. I had to refill the mister but that was it.

Today though I have amazing news. Just kidding. Still havent spotted any living crickets but the lizards both seem well fed. Not exactly fat like the holding tank lizards just after I feed them but fed enough. I did notice thismorning though, that one of the lone pepper plants was tipped over. the leaves were already re-orriented towards the light though, even before I turned the light on. The lizards don't usually disturb things... They never nock anything over or eat anything either... (strict carnivores). I also added some apple seeds. I'm not holding my breath for them to grow but it would be interresting to see if that would change the system at all.

Ecosystem Tank, first blog

Ok so this is my first time ever making a blog so bear with me for a bit.

On November 3rd, 2008 I started a thirty gallon terrarium containing three lizards, two earthworms, fifteen crickets a fern, several pepper plants and some grass. The purpose of this project is to attempt to create a semi-contained, self sustaining food chain. Obviously, it can't be completely contained, because the lizards and the plants need the light and the water. and those are the only two things added to the tank on a regular basis. The light is provided by a Coralife aquarium lighting array and the water is added every six hours by a Zoo Med Habba Mist machine.

To date the only changes I've made are; I removed one of the original three long tailed grass lizards and she now lives in the five gallon holding tank. And I had to add fifteen more crickets at one point.

I'll be adding details and profiles as I go. Like I said, this is my first blog, so please bear with me.

Thanks, Dylan.