I Built a Tiny Ecosystem

this is an atom anyways I find scale to be so interesting and I have this dream of building a really tiny ecosystem that is basically self-sufficient and interacts with itself with living organisms all in the next 30 days seems crazy seems fun I wish there was like a Disneyland for ecosystems let's go to gecko world there's definitely not a gecko world there is a gecko World attached to a gas station so I went in and saw geckos cute Axolotl from Minecraft frogs and Sean Sean is taking me through this process step by step don't do this unless you have a Sean sold me a tank and everything I needed to get started so I brought it home well my friends this is the ecosystem the ecosystem that was better the first step of building our ecosystem building the back wall oh that's toxic I sprayed the back of the ecosystem with this foam essentially this is going to let us Place cork AKA like wood along the back of the ecosystem all right that's our base layer of foam next I started inserting this cork wood I had the idea of adding this little Nook just in case we get any cute animals that want a hiding spot then I filled in the gaps with the foam okay the cork has been set time to dry I'm gonna go for a walk I'll see you soon me an organism walking foreign gecko World told me to get moss and to tuck in the moss in between the phone I inserted the Moss with ease we're adding a nice bit of color to the ecosystem this is actually a living organism it doesn't need much water or anything but it is alive that is so cool I feel like doing a title screen but now we're gonna add the substrate I didn't know what's up what's up so I had to look it up it's basically the ground I have the ingredients I'm gonna you know how that goes so the substrate is going to be at the base of the ecosystem it's going to capture all the moisture and help provide nutrients and hydration then I inserted a log in the back of the tank and combed the dirt for good luck now it's time to put our first insect into the ecosystem isopods these isopods are actually extremely small but these are our first animals going in the ecosystem this is so fun I feel like I'm in uh science class I don't know why I keep holding this shot I don't know I don't know so I added our baby isopods and then I added springtails which actually clean the isopods that's cute I added some Moss for our organisms to eat watered it a little bit day one complete pretty crazy day one I'm super excited I'm gonna leave for a few days I'm gonna leave for like five days or so I'm probably gonna come tomorrow just to vacuum this dirt and stuff but yeah I'm so excited to see how it changes I'll see you guys then so I came in the next day and vacuumed briefly but after that I didn't check on the ecosystem at all the Moss moved a little bit there's probably some serious stuff going on in that dirt isopods are probably claiming some territory in there oh no I don't know kind of dramatic it's day five of my tiny ecosystem and I think there's some sketchy stuff happening reason being nothing's happened and that's weird because there's a lot of living organisms in this terrarium right now natural materials there's heartbeats do isopods have hearts dude they have hearts so you're telling me we've got hundreds of heartbeats in this ecosystem and not one piece of moss has moved a little congested you guys are embarrassing me you know I'm filming a YouTube video right you know I was expecting on day five for the isopod Invasion but no this is the isopod inspection cool song that's a good song kind of kind of mysterious I've already moistened up the terrarium with this but I don't think this is going to be enough so my sort of game plan is to add a mister turn up the Moss into the dirt and add like a carrot and apparently we should see the biggest population growth since the 1940s post-world War II a baby boom or something I don't know that's what Sean said you started talking about the war I'm excited to see some action in order to set up the mister I kind of have to deconstruct the tank a little bit had to take out some foam some Moss so I could add the tube so we have three sources of food right now it's Moss carrot and algae apparently they like all of it and I'm just gonna leave this piece for the time lapse just in case they uh want that one I don't know all right guys y'all be good enjoy the food hope you packed umbrellas [Music] [Applause] [Music] after watching this back I actually realized how active and hungry the isopods are I just couldn't notice because I put so much moss in that first day but look how much they destroyed this carrot and I actually put another carrot in because they ate the first one so fast so cool [Music] it's really something oh yeah that smells like death today is a big day in the history of this ecosystem Because by the looks of it there's been an isopod invasion I'm gonna break something I know it doesn't look like pretty much anything's happening in here but Sean told me that these things multiply and these things multiply like crazy so what that means for us and what that means for the ecosystem new apex predator that's some scary music next ropical plants why to make it look cuter in there inserting these plants is a little bit scary mostly because they are already kind of dying and if they just continue to die I'm Gonna Be Sad however if I single-handedly revive them it's probably going to get to my ego either way this probably isn't good for me next I'm adding this massive log for the apex predator to enjoy the only problem is that it doesn't really fit anyway you slice it I was thinking about potentially it just doesn't fit um the log seems to fit now hey oh wow so now there's a lot of living organisms in our ecosystem we have isopods we've got some live plants we've got this wood it's dead but there is something coming and for that I need to add one of the most brilliant inventions of all time daylight let there be light right whoa guys whoa sorry I'm just holding the apex predators of this ecosystem in my hand right now all right these friends in this jar right now are going to absolutely obliterate the isopod invasion they are Fierce they are intimidating they are Kevin Joe and Nick I'm really enjoying seeing Kevin Nick and Joe and their new home Nick already ate an isopod look at this I can't believe I captured this on camera just in case the dart frogs get bored of eating the isopods I also added some flightless flies into the ecosystem what even is a flightless fly does that just equal out to nothing anyways I'm kind of in love with this ecosystem it's so tiny yet so elaborate it's alive it's growing there's a full story being told in this terrarium and I'm barely even a part of it it's beautiful I mean I don't know what else to say I oh my gosh this b-roll is insane this is my first time watching this time lapse look at the plant absolutely be revived by the UV light we captured Joe eating another fly which is so cool they chilled in the hidey hole Nick really enjoys gymnastics apparently it feels like days are just flying by Kevin did some skydiving he also did some rock climbing and honestly it's just kind of crazy how much happens while I'm gone but what's behind me oh the tank I've got some new accessories it is currently day 25. do you see Nick there so cute so there's not very many species that can coexist with the dark frogs and Shawn and Gekko world did inform me that there would be one specific species that would be perfect for my situation well I'll show you but let me put up these Vines first I put up these Mossy Vines which actually added a wild jungle effect to the ecosystem it's super pretty and they're very climbable okay allow me to introduce you to Bobby and Ray Bobby and Ray are making themselves at home it looks like Nick has actually spotted Bobby they're definitely friendly with each other oh Bobby look at these little eyes oh it I let them get accustomed to their new home before I gave them a little gift as a housewarming present to Bobby and Ray I'm actually adding a new phase of the water cycle I didn't know what this was either believe it or not this is a fogger I'm gonna add it now in order for the fogger to work it has to be submerged in a pool of liquid so I dug out a little hole I put in the fogger and look at this this place actually looks like the Rainforest Cafe I added some more flightless flies into the ecosystem and found Kevin hiding in the gigahus all right well I'm gonna let these guys have their dinner and I'm gonna peace out after I saw Bobby enjoying an all-you-can-eat buffet I decided to stick around for a bit and just watch and on the topic of dinner Gordon Ramsay is not my dad I get it I look more like Gordon Ramsay than my actual dad and I've actually emailed Gordon Ramsay's agent to see if he could come on my channel and admit that he's not my father long story short his agent said he's not going to collab with a smaller channel so let's pass Gordon Ramsay in subscribers and help me prove that he's not my dad Thanks meanwhile Bobby is still going so over the course of the next few days I'm just going to be putting out some sweet papaya for the geckos not to be dramatic but I would die for Bobby everyone seems to have a favorite food in this ecosystem oh watch this watch Bobby drink the water that comes off the log oh my goodness over the course of the next few days I kind of just let the ecosystem be other than feed the geckos a little bit more papaya it's yummy I'd be lying if I said I didn't try it myself footage like this just blows my mind and don't get me started on the fact that Bobby and Rey are playing tag this ecosystem has really come to life over the last few days it feels like these animals always have something they're doing or not doing relaxing is an activity and here we captured Bobby shedding his skin which is kind of gnarly he literally just ate his old self talk about new year new me I walked into the ecosystem on day 30 and at this point I'm just marveling at how beautiful this thing is I honestly think this is one of the coolest things I've ever gotten to do I've watched with my own eyes a multi-leveled ecosystem come into life I don't know what it is about Bobby I love him everything he does is so cool and cute and he's just existing in this tiny little ecosystem with no idea about how big and massive this planet is but that doesn't matter I just wish he knew how important he is foreign [Music]

Channel: Ryan Trahan

Views: 11,919,297

Keywords: Ryan, Trahan, I built, tiny ecosystem, ecosystem, diy, terrarium, fish tank, aquarium, do it yourself, plant art, native terrarium, bottle garden, vampire crab, pacman frog, mourning gecko, self sustaining ecosystem, jar ecosystem, planted aquarium

Id: NYnVf9XnDLI

Length: 11min 13sec (673 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 19 2023