Off-topic from normal 'pets' fare, but.. (dial-up warning)

[X_Digger]

37. First 'life' is in the fish room..

.. but it's not what you'd think..

About five weeks ago, I collected some sand, water, and a bit of algae from a tank at a local store, just to mess around with the microscope.



Here are some of the things I found..

amphipod


Baby collonista snails


various nematodes


Even some copepods


Well, I left the sample cup on the back of the counter, in the room light, and I've kept adding a pipette full of RO/DI..

I checked it a while later, and yep, still a lot of life in a 100ml 'micro-pico' tank.

Well, I felt sorry for the critters in this container, so...

I helped a friend move his fish store a couple weekends ago, and he gave me a pico tank and a bag of sand when I told him about my 100ml micro-pico.

So now, it's a 2.5g pico, with a tiny 10w heater and a HOB filter meant for a 10g tank. I've got a 70w equivalent spiral CF bulb over it.



I let it cycle with a pinch of food and some sand from the LFS, then a couple of weeks later, I dumped the contents of the 100ml cup in it.

I set up the microscope cameras to watch it come to life

http://rowelab.com/fish/camera/fugecam.php

In my best mad scientist voice..

IT'S... IT'S.. IT'S ALIVE!

First life spotted on the fuge cams- tiny little nematodes that look like ferrets on crack crawling on boulders.