hey guys, i'm interested in starting a little water garden

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I'm also curious about this. I want to put some water features in my home but don't want to be that cruel person that tosses a betta and guppy schools in a little vase.

What are some, if any, life I can put in vases or small aquariums? What are some pretty plants to fill?

Also it's my birthday so it's party time.

snails

>>2328849
Sea monkeys

algae and oysters in one self-sustaining ecosystem

You are on the right track OP. If you can find it, look for a large punch bowl that can fit like 2-3 gallons. I got one of those and it's very pretty, but currently has a betta in it until I upgrade him at the end of the month to a ten gallon, but after he's out, I'm going to put a small handful (like 5) cherry shrimp in it.

Let me get a pic after this post to show you.

>>2328927
It's just big enough for a small filter and heater, but cherry shrimp are pretty fine with room temp or a little under, and if you do weekly partial waterchanges, they might be alright without a filter. I suggest you lookup a care guide for that though.

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>>2328928
Sigh...forgot pic

>water garden
>plants can't live in water
good luck dumbass

>>2328880
This is going to sound super superficial but they look like sperm to me, not a very pretty terrarium filler.

>>2328957
>What is the ocean

Anon. Anon, please.

Sit down before you hurt yourself.

>>2328842
I know theres this company that does it for you, if thats what you want. http://eco-sphere.com/

There are several questions you have to ask yourself.

What is the size of your vessel?

What lighting solution are you going to have?

What substrate (if any) are you going to use?


I'm thinking that you're not going to have heating, or filtration in this container, so that means most animal life is going to be out of the question. Snails should be alright, but if you want to include any fresh water shrimp you'd have to do large regular water changes to keep them alive.

Depending on the size and depth of your bowl, you may be able to use mineralised soil (google Walstad mineralising substrate) and cap it with sand or gravel. Then you could plant into it using umbrella papyrus, cryptocorynes, amazon swords, etc., this has the advantage of not needing much fertilisation. If you want a clean look (such as your pic), Look at aquatic mosses used in aquariums, and decor such as stones and driftwood. Some mosses adhere to surfaces they're tied to, some don't. Fissidens sp, Callicostella sp and Taxiphyllum ferriei are mosses that strongly adhere. If you're not using a substrate, you will need to dose some kind of fertiliser to keep it healthy though.

>>2328842

You'd rather want to start a larger, actual aquarium instead of this bowl shit. The larger they are the easier it get to maintain water quality and life in them. You could easily set up something in the 50-100L range, some basic greenery and a small swarm of guppies on the cheap. Then if you want to advance into more interesting stuff, you can easily buy equipment to set up proper lighting, filtering and stuff.

Forget the fucking bowls, srsly, they are horrible,

>>2329255
Are bowls and vases still bad for immobile stuff, like clams and plants? What about snails? Do these need filters?

I'm looking for something for bathroom counters and coffee tables.

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I'm also interested in this.
I bought one on a yard sale for making a fairy garden, but something more lively sounds interesting.

>>2328965
That is awesome

>>2329359
Clean it out, take a gallon water jug and fill it, see how much water you are working with when full. Then go from there.

Cherry shrimp are the small, easy one's to take care of, but without a filter you need small water changes and plants to provide oxygen. But plants also release co2 at night, so you have to read up a bit on that as well. I don't know if water changes would be enough to provide the shrimp with enough oxygen.

if i buy sea monkeys and a large bowl what do i fees them and what else can live with them?

>>2328958
How much of a cock-gobbling faggot do you have to be to see resemblance between shrimp and sperm.

>>2328842
>>2328849
Lucky Bamboo (any draceana really, quite a lot of variety!) and potho vines are a couple of great options.

Put the roots in the water, with all of the leaves out in the open air, and they will really spice it up. I have both in my bedroom!

Best part about it? As long as either specimens are solid green (not the kind with white spots/stripes on the leaves) then they can thrive perfectly fine in low light areas.

>>2329524
Filters are easy for stuff like this, just get a teeny tiny wedge of PVC pipe, preferably black to blend in easier. A teeny tiny slice of chemical free/aquarium safe sponge, cram the sponge into one end of the PVC pipe, put an airstone in the other, and viola, you have oxygen + filter.

I mean shit, there's all kinds of super easy and still super effective DIY techniques for teeny tiny containers that will never house anything other than some snails or a couple of shrimp.

I'd be more worried about keeping the over all temperature stable.

No point in doing all of that if everything, even the plants, die from cold during the night.

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Just posting what I have because I love small bowls with plants. Pic related is a 3 gallon beverage dispenser from walmart that sits on my nightstand. Has a small bubbler and two lights. Used to just have a female betta, now houses a fierce dwarf Mexican crayfish named Mr Trump and a handful of amanos. I stare at it every night before bed, it looks a little different now added floating plants, dwarf lettuce, water spangles, and red root floaters.

Water sprite bottom left, java moss on spiderwood that has been removed and turned into a tree for another tank, and some penny wort cuz it's doing well in there. All my floating plants are doing better here than in my other tanks.

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>>2331543
What it looks like now.
No soil just some river rocks.
Def the easiest thing I've ever set up, it's been up a few months now and I almost never clean it, just scrape off some algae from time to time.

>>2328965
>>2329522
They're shit, actually. About the equivalent to keeping a goldfish in a half gallon bowl.
Those shrimp can live 20 years in a good environment. Most people are lucky to get a few months out of them in those bubbles. Basically the amount of time it takes them to starve to death.

>>2329524
thanks, i'll look into them to see if it's suitable

>>2331556
>>2331543
That's gorgeous man.

What bubbler and lights do you have for it?

>>2328842

I put my marimo balls with my african clawed frog and she kept kicking them and stuff and killed one so I took them out. They are better in their own quiet still tank to be honest.

>>2331673
Thanks! Just realized I said bubbler, meant to say sponge filter which I bought this or a similar one:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B005LMQCW2/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1489093119&sr=8-1&keywords=sponge+filter+mini

And the lights (I run both these) the led is like a bright-ish night light for me but I turn the actual lamp off at night cuz it bugs the bf:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000HJDATW/ref=oh_aui_i_d_old_o2_img?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00X84LMHK/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1489093746&sr=8-1&keywords=mingdak+led+aquarium+light

I'll eventually hang a pretty lamp there, but this works well for now. They're both just sitting on the lid.

The beverage dispenser is something like this:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0036POD8Q/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1489093965&sr=8-2&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=3+gallon+beverage+dispenser

Hope this helps someone somehow.