Observation 8 

We have noticed that the leaves in general are starting to wither and some of the bigger ones are beginning to turn brown. There is still a lot of condensation in the top part of the terrarium.

Leaf showing signs of deterioration

The water in the bottom tier of the terrarium is still clearer than the initial observation and the algae is still looking sickly but it is still mostly green. Based on the position of the snail we have concluded that he is not dead but he is still not as active as he once was. Our guppy is still very much active and alive. Our elodia is bushy and very green, although at the end it is turning dark green, and at the very end a little brown. One thing we noticed that we haven't before is that the string, which used to be very long and was floating deeply in the water is now a lot shorter. It is not even touching the water's surface now.

Our terrarium now weighs 1.554kg

Our string doesn't touch the water

Our snail is alive! but less active

Observation 7
3/24/15 This week, the first difference we noticed with our terrarium was how the upper part had a lot of condensation. It was difficult to see into the bottle because of all the water droplets and mist that appeared around the inside of the bottle. Our one plant continues to grow and it’s starting to bend over because of the restraints from the top of the bottle. Our leaves are continuing to grow bigger and the plant still looks very healthy and green. 

In the aquarium part of our terrarium, the water still looks very clear and clean. It’s interesting how it is much clearer than the first observation because we predicted that it would get dirtier. The elodia is think and green and takes up most of the water. Our guppy is still swimming around happily, but our one smaller snail that is usually very active did not move.  
Next week we will see if it has moved and determine if it is still alive.  
Our terrarium weighed 1.560 kg so it is continuing to decrease.

Our water is pretty clear

Our bean plant and the condensation

our snail on the leaf

Week 6

Our water appears to be getting clearer as the weeks go on. There is still a lot of debris floating around but the water itself is less murky than before.  The elodia is continuing to grow both longer and thicker with more leaves.  There are a few new brown leaves toward the bottom of the bottle, but overall the leaves are still pretty green. The guppy seems to be a little larger and swimming around the tank.  The snail seems to be less active today than usual but is still moving slightly.  

Our one plant has grown another stem off of the main stem with 3 new small leaves! It is now reaching the top of the bottle.  It still looks very green and healthy as it continues to grow.  


1.562kg is the weight of our terrarium this week which is very interesting because the weight is decreasing.  We predicted that the weight would increase because we imagined that more material would build up in the water as well as the plant growing.  We are not sure why the weight is decreasing, but it could be because some of the living things have died.  

Drawing our terrarium in color was interesting! Seeing how much actual color was involved in our little ecosystem is really cool. Drawing it also helped us focus on the details involved in our terrarium that pictures don't necessarily highlight. Also we just like to color. 

Ceci's Color drawing!

Avana's color drawing!

Terrarium Weight
X-Axis: Weight in Kilograms Y-Axis: Time in weeks

Week 5 

The state of our water does not seem any more murky, and after comparing the water to our pictures from last week it even looks a little clearer.  There are still fragments of rope floating around in the water and the elodia continues to grow.  It is still a bright green with nice big leaves.  

Our guppy still seems healthy and swimming around as well as the snail who crawls all over the bottle every few minutes.  They are both very active and we hope they continue to thrive in our terrarium.  

We still have one bean plant that has grown a few centimeters from last week and has grown a few more leaves.  Only one of our three beans have grown, so we believe our prediction that the other two beans fell through to the water is true.  The hole is so small that we are still very unsure of how this happened, but there is a clear bean looking object at the bottom of our bottle with the skin of the bean also floating around.  

This week, instead of taking a picture of our terrarium we each did a drawing.  Although this seems like we are not getting as good of an image of our project, it actually encouraged us to focus much more on the terrarium and all of the details than if we took a quick snap of the picture.  We were drawing the terrarium from different angles, but we both have the same important details. Our Terrarium weighs 1.564 kg

Ceci's sketch!

Avana's sketch!