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The wonderful world of a Forest Ants Antquarium
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A world of your own |
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| 2007/04/15 |
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| There’s a new pet that’s just perfect for Hong Kong life. |
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Small apartments, lack of outdoor space, high rise living: Hong Kong is a tougher town than most when it comes to owning pets. But new technologies are at hand, changing the way we observe living creatures and enabling us to raise them in a rather unique way.
For a family pet with a difference, urban dwellers are turning to sealed closed ecosystems: complete, self-contained and self-sustaining miniature glass worlds. Containing real micro-ecosystems – home to plant life, fish, ants, shrimps - these glass enclosures have been termed the world’s lowest maintenance pets.
They may be great learning tools and home to all manner of creatures, but sealed ecosystems are actually a result of space age technology initiated by NASA in the early 1980s. Back then, NASA was studying the Earth’s biosphere and researching life support systems in outer space and such tiny biosphere models provided them with valuable data. These days, ecospheres have moved into our homes, schools and offices, offering fascinating glimpses into life on our planet.
Inside these containers plants and animals exist in perfect balance, yet nothing enters except sunlight. Energy from the sun promotes plant and animal growth, causing plants to undergo a process called photosynthesis which uses the energy from light to turn carbon dioxide into oxygen. In return, the animals generate carbon dioxide and nutrients needed by the plants. And so it goes on.
Sealed ecosystems come in a variety of designs, all of which echo the workings of planet Earth. With Beachworld, for example, you can bring the beach inside your home. Simply place it somewhere warm and light and watch red shrimps called Opae’ula, normally found only on certain Hawaiian islands, inhabit algae-filled lava rock pools. The light causes the algae to produce oxygen and food for the shrimps which in turn produce carbon dioxide and nutrients for the algae to grow. Unlike their natural habitat there are no predators in Beachworld so the life span of the shrimps can be extremely long.
A different kind of environment can be found with a Forest Ants Antquarium, a self-sufficient world where ants and tropical plants live in a perfectly balanced environment. Antquarium contains a special clear gel full of nutrients which acts as the ants’ food and water. Within days the ants burrow out an amazing pattern of channels and tunnels, each clearly visible through the clear antquarium walls.
Educational and ever changing, it’s no wonder that biospheres are becoming increasingly popular. A fascinating glimpse into the continual cycle of life of which each and every one of us plays a part. |
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| Grow your own Wonderfish |
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1. Pour water into a prepared container.
2. Add fish eggs from peat moss into the container and gently stir until peat moss is saturated.
3. Fish babies will hatch between 2-98 hours.
4. On the second day, feed with brine shrimps.
5. When the baby fish become strong, move them to a bigger container.
6. Male fish are colourful when mature at 2 months old. Female fish have no colour. |
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| Super Facts |
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| Ants are one of the oldest living creatures on earth. They are also the longest living of all insects and can carry 10-20 times their own bodyweight, climb 30-metre-high trees and move at speeds equal to a person running 104 kph. At the last count, experts estimated there were 4,600 kinds of ants on earth. |
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| Super Tip |
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| A baby wonderfish will eat 10 brine shrimps a day. |
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