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For all those out there who are too lazy to feed your fish, and too broke to afford a fine art terrarium ^[5] ? your salvation has arrived in the form of the Ecosphere ^[6]. These sealed glass mini-biospheres are the world’s first totally self-contained and self-sustaining ecosystems ? filled with red shrimp, bacteria, algae and filtered sea-water. They require no feeding, no cleaning and no care what-so-ever, except to be kept in sunlight at a comfortable temperature. The ecosphere is meant to represent a simple version of Earth?s own closed ecosystem and contains the same essential elements that are found on our planet: air, water, sunlight, along with the three main facets of a simple food chain: producers (algae), consumers (shrimp) and decomposers (bacteria). They usually last 2-3 years, but have been known to last up to 10 years.

Surprisingly, Ecospheres are relatively inexpensive, starting at $79 for the smallest model.

Ecosphere’s British website ^[7] is easier on the eyes, and easier to read than the stateside version ^[8] of the same thing, for some strange reason.

Via Worldchanging ^[9]