EcoSphere Closed Aquatic Ecosystem, Small Pod, with Turntable Base

I got my bioshphere November of 2018. December 24rd 2023, There is still one shrimp alive. Pretty incredible.

My Ecosphere came neatly packed with a lot of protections to prevent any damage. Mine came with 4 small shrimp which at the time of writing this review (5 months after the purchase) are still alive and very active. At first there was no visible algae in the sphere but after a few days of receiving enough sunlight the algae started to grow and some of the branches in the coral started to turn green.Taking care of it its the easiest, it just needs enough sunlight for the algae and the shrimp to warm up and be active, that's it, nothing else is needed, no need to clean anything or feed the shrimp or change the water, nada, as advertised, it is a self sustained environment.Now I've read some of the reviews saying their shrimp died all too soon, now I don't know in which conditions these people are keeping their spheres but I make sure mine gets actual sunlight and not just artificial light.I've read somewhere that having shrimp babies is somewhat rare but as you can see in the video my shrimp got horny and had several babies which are swimming around, not sure if the babies will survive, but It would be very nice to have at least 2 or 3 grow up to adult size!. Again make sure the sphere gets sunlight and its in a stable room temperature.If you want to impress, this is an awesome gift by the way.

I ordered the large eco-system yesterday and it arrived The next day. I made sure not to order on a Friday though because of the weekend. I stressed all day praying that they made it from Arizona to Tennessee back to California. I called FedEx today when I saw it went to Tennessee and I thought it was going to the wrong address, they told me Memphis Tennessee was their hub and I worried that the stress on the airplane back and forth would be too much for them, but they all made it alive so I'm happy.I have counted eight little guys or girls in there. They were already swimming pretty quickly as soon as I took them out of the box and it's about 85° here today. I actually waited a week before ordering them because it was 100° here last week and it was too hot to ship them I thought. I took a video and it's not giving me the option to upload it so I could show everyone. I bought them to put in my office but it says you can't put them by a computer or anything that puts off heat, so I'm bummed about that but I don't want to hurt them.They are really much smaller than I thought they would be, but I'm glad I got the large one because I think the small one would be too small for me to see. I took a video for everyone so you can see they look like they are having a lot of fun and are extremely active. It was kind of expensive but I think it was worth it because they are so cute and I pray they live for years to come.

Started losing water 6 weeks after purchase, in less than 3 months after purchase everything was dead due to concentration of byproducts from water loss. Run from this product from whoever you buy it from.

Update: The one sad shrimp is still alive six months later, but we can barely see it through the haze of filth growing on the glass. The cleaning magnet is straight, yet the glass is curved. So it cleans a hair-width line with each swipe, and that takes ten thousand swipes to cover the whole area. And it doesn't really clear the glass. It's not bristled like proper aquarium cleaning magnets. I'd like to toss this eyesore in the trash and return this survivor to the wild...It was cool at first. Really fun, and the maintenance-free aspect was quite appealing. Two months later, and all are dead except one. Don't know what got them, but one died, then two at once. Now we have a lonely one (the most sluggish) that I hope gets put out of his misery. I have a feeling he will survive in solitary confinement for years because that's what this area can support. Refilling it shouldn't be a problem for the business owners (shrimp breeding is cheap), except their website has so many limits on it and those are written with such a harsh tone. Plus, we're only a few hours from their tiny building in Tucson, yet they demand $28 for return shipping. If shipping alone costs that much, how is the business even worth the effort? Great concept, and I wish it worked, but I don't think we lucked out on this one. Maybe the ridiculously expensive bigger spheres work better. It's not sealed glass, either. There's a plastic cap on the bottom. Really diminishes the cool factor. I have a snow globe I can't shake. Oh well.