what are you talking about? you can do plenty with aquarium supplies,
including guppies. i have some pictures of the ones i had and plenty of
posts regarding ones i did. the guppy ones died because of a sudden heat
wave that struck, and i couldn't move the bottles from window sill cuz of
work (mmm....boiled guppy), but the brine shrimp ones will last for months.
at least mine did. but i decapsulated them for a better hatch/decomposition
rate (the shells are designed for preservation) and fed them a certain brand
of live algae i can't remember atm. since this forum's died down my bottles
have mostly died, but the two 2-liter bottles i've had on my window sill for
a few months now are still going, but they're not doing much due to their
small nature. the snails in there lack calcium so their shells are clear
and no doubt super-frail, but they have no predators to worry about. other
than that there's blobs of algae-covered mulm and duckweed throughout the
bottle. not many snails, but still.

long and short of it, because i'm stubborn and live life this way - if you
wanna do it, you'll do it. aquarium supplies combined with pond or some
ocean water WILL get you somewhere, if only slightly more enlightened. read
up on the posts, they'll help. ask any questions should you still be
stuck. i think we've answered a LOT of questions you may want to ask
already, and the posts aren't many so...good luck.

On 11/1/06, Logic316 <logic316@...> wrote:
>
> I'd say the only ingredients you can buy from an aquarium shop that are
> suitable for making a freshwater microcosm are gravel and (maybe)
> aquatic plants. The typical fauna you find there (fish, snails, shrimp,
> etc) tend to require too much O2/food and generate too much waste
> material to survive long in a small sealed container, no matter what
> species of plant or algae you try to balance them with. If you want to
> make a saltwater ecosphere, on the other hand, then you could also try
> using brine shrimp and live marine algae cultures, both of which are
> available at the better aquarium shops. You could also consider getting
> your ingredients from the local pond, which are of course, free. Pond
> water contains algae (which absorbs CO2, generates O2, consumes waste
> material, provides food source) and many kinds of tiny arthropods and
> worms which can survive well on minute amounts of O2 and food, and
> produce very little waste output, so they easily balance each other out
> and can survive for several months inside a small container.
>
> - Logic316
>


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