Fixed My Paludarium!

Today, I spent time fixing my paludarium, a little twist of an aquarium with a rocky island in the middle. Originally, the water volume was around a gallon, but now we're at probably 2.5 gallons. If you remember, I had the pepper plants growing in the back on a cobblestone brick. I raised that and put a new brick under it while creating a cave system under the rocks. The idea here is to create an area for critters to hide. The pepper plants have been growing fine with the lack of light, but their growth has slowed.

So far, the visible critters are some worms that remained below the surface and mosquito larvae. The mosquito larvae are there for me to observe their early lifecycle. There may be some tiny crustaceans that I got from a local pond to help add to the microbial diversity, but it's very difficult to see them.

In the future, if I feel as if the system is stable and secure, I will add larger crustaceans. The goal is to create a home for tiny shrimp. We may raise these shrimp to feed our next project.