How to stuff the world in a 5-gallon tank!

    How would one put an entire world into a small tank? How to create a self-sustaining life...

  This is what our company is for and we needed a display terrarium for our table at the upcoming reptile show this weekend. It is important to understand that humans are incredibly visual creatures. This is used by advertisers and marketers every day. What better way to get people to understand what our company is all about than using our products to create an entire ecosystem in a 5-gallon tank?! 

  The first thing you need in a terrarium is a drainage layer. This can consist of leca balls or gravel of some sort. The second layer you should probably have is fine sand of some sort. Thirdly, you'll need some nice flake soil with lots of nutrients that the plants and the isopods can enjoy. The fourth part is where this creativity assignment came in. The fourth part has two sub-parts!

  Part one of part four: choosing your plants. There are all kinds of microplants. These plants come in a variety of survival types (air plants, succulents, arboreal plants, cacti, terrestrial plants, etc..) There are also lots of different styles of plants and colors. I chose mostly plants that would grow tall like trees in my little world.

  Part two of part four: Placing your plants in a creative beautiful way. There are many different ways you can place plants. You can use superglue to stick different plants that do not need soil like air plants and moss to rocks, sticks, or bark in your terrarium. I chose to go simple and pass on this option. I pleasingly planted my plants while leaving the middle empty. 

  Part five is adding fillers like pebbles, rocks, stones, etc. Then my absolute favorite part is picking out and adding your animals! For this terrarium, I chose bumblebee millipedes, tiny garden millipedes, scarlet millipedes, white tropical springtails, and panda king isopods! 

   Below are pictures of the terrarium, how did we do?!