This Closed Ecosystem Received CONSTANT LIGHT For 4 Years - This Happened 

the snails might be missing minerals for shells and this might be the reason they keep on dying .

The sunlight being darker than the LEDs must be their night time lol

I wonder if too many lifeforms that depend on calcium were born, that might explain the die off. Anything with an Exoskeleton or shell will draw calcium from the water, and over 4 years with such a small environment, its possible all the available calcium is tied up in the exoskeleton and shells of the various lifeforms. I wonder if a Jar with some crushed coral to buffer the water would allow for the long-term survival of a snail population.

That football field comparison was very helpful thank you

Eight Eyed Blood Hedgehog Cool band name unlocked!

As someone who has kept aquariums, I can tell you that the algae growth in lines is usually because there is some structure on the glass that it clung to that just so happened to be in straight lines. Sometimes its scratches, sometimes its just a bit of dirt that got wiped on the glass, but algae like in straight lines is almost always caused by this

“They take the glass butt. Sorry: they take the glass, but…” Gotta respect the ZeFrank tribute

I know my isopods sleep. They like to hide under wood and bark pieces and have a nap. I know this by how long it takes some of them to react when I turn over the piece of bark. When they wake up, they run away and try to hide again.

RIP boogieworms, you will all be missed

I appreciate how seriously he takes his presentation's. Seeing him introduce the topic while sitting confidently in a suit really cement's the science vibe and I love it.

Impressive. Very nice. Let's see Paul Allen's closed ecosystem.

Have you considered combining a bunch of your old jars together in a larger aquarium? All the things left at the end of experiments are hardy in one way or another. Maybe make an aquarium with an always dark hidey hole, a corner that always has the lights on, etc...

@8:00 You know, it could be that the snails you're viewing are actually adults that have undergone a sort of island dwarfism process. How many generations is four years worth?

I was expecting to see the critters evolve sunglasses. 😎

RIP our visually gifted and veiny, spiky mammal imposter. ❤ We will miss you.

I read that monks at a temple or shrine in Japan, they raise bell crickets that sing during the day. Normally, they only sing in the dark, but according to the monks, the technique was to raise them in constant light.

When I was about 9 years old I noticed this one little pothole filled with water, and within that water small creatures zooming about that looked like sesame seeds completely filling the entire puddle, for about 2 months this giant puddle was filled to the brim with those creatures until the school filled in the hole with dirt. Forever I had just called them sesame bugs with no clue what they were until now, now I know they are ostracods thanks!

I kept (and still have) a airtight jar 6 years on and at about 3-4 years, the snails all died out. I never did ascertain why. I just assumed the balance of minerals or oxygen in the jar tipped and a mass extinction occurred. Only mine had a day/night cycle.

Instantly clicked.

9:13 I appreciate you giving an imperial conversion without making some sort of joke, as an American I found this helpful and refreshing

I saw Eight-Eyed Blood Hedgehog in concert back in ‘93. Epic show.

I had a container with water and a few rocks closed for 11 yrs but when we moved houses my sister accidentally dropped it, biggest tragedy ever 😭 i used to watch the container when i would get upset or bored, basically it was just something to turn to whenever, it was fun watching the little creatures live life

14:25 idea: a fake moon one. 2 weeks of light. 2 weeks of pure dark. Repeat

9:18 as an American, this really helps, thank you. Edit: As a recently new viewer of your channel, I am excited to see new videos and updates of series like this one.

2:28 FEEL GOOD INC

Tracing back my youtube history over the last year or so, I think you are the reason I now have a fulfilling aquarium hobby! One of your videos randomly came up and slowly got me more interested in microorganisms and the elegance of the food web in every ecosystem.

As an American, I really appreciate letting us know how many football fields long the worm was. I was confused before but that really helped me out. Thanks.

you're probably in my top 5 channels man. I'm so glad you're back in full swing, huge inspiration to my

Maybe you got some sort of toxic buildup in the substrate, gas for example. When it finally came out it produced a mass extinction killing adults. Once other microbes consumed the toxic compound the critters hatching from the eggs repopulated.

You never know what you'll come across while scrolling through RU-vid, for example this video. I would've never searched it out but darn if I didn't watch the whole thing with great interest. Keep up the good work, you have a new subscriber in me.

1/18,000 of a football field is what stood between me and a career in the NFL. I'm an alcoholic now, I will never forget that measurement.

3:10 wags his shell like a dog!

1:00 “Eight-Eyed Blood Hedgehog” is metal af. It sounds like a heavy metal band or a ninjutsu/summon animal in Naruto. Really f’in cool.

I'm very happy to see you've been in your fancy pants a lot lately. I hope this means you're feeling a lot better lately! It's always very nice to see you! I really liked learning about your no light ecosystem!!

I can't believe it's been 4 years. I remember when you started this one

Altho ostracods and copepods may or may not sleep(I’m sure they most likely do) almost all organisms we have studied have a circadian rhythm, or an internal rhythm which roughly takes about a day to complete and syncs up with the 24 hr day on earth primarily through the light and dark cycle provided by the sun rising and setting. When organisms are removed from an external cue that syncs up their internal clock to the external world, their internal clock starts to “free run”. Basically pretty much no organism has an internal clock with a periodicity of 24 hrs, so it will start to slowly(or rapidly if greatly different from 24 hrs) get out of sync with our actual clocks until a nocturnal animal starts to come out during the day for example. In this experiment that you set up, you are essentially removing that external cue by subjecting them to constant light, Altho if you’re turning off the leds during the day that subtle change in amount of light received might be enough for their internal clocks to sync to, but these creatures will still go through periods of high activity and low activity, possibly even sleep, but it just might not be in sync with the external day night cycle. Another interesting thing tho is that these organisms might act upon each others internal rhythms bc circadian rhythms aren’t only synced up to light, but a myriad of other factors, and I’ve always thought it’d be interesting to see how mixing and matching different species would affect their activity patterns and free runs. Sincerely, someone working in a lab that studies chronobiology😉

Great video! I thought the 24 hr. light would have more of a negative impact on the animals. I suppose it makes sense that putting more energy into an ecosystem would cause it to thrive. Maybe an interesting idea for a future project would be identical ecospheres that receive only certain wavelengths of light. Maybe one that gets only UV or infrared light?

I still can't believe how different Jars looks from how I imagined him from his voice

Any follow up this far in deserves a like

What an exciting update!!!!! Thank you for the video!

American here. The football field measurement truly made me laugh

Awesome presentation technique!..... Honestly, worth watching for that alone. 💯

I love the ducks in the background, very entertaining

Thanks for sharing this. Fascinating experiment which reminds me of a series of experiments I did with tadpoles, and cactuses....

had absolutely no idea what you meant by "half a centimeter" until you converted it into a proper, easy to understand unit... thank you!

Oh woah I remember the making of this thing. Never thought I’d see it four years later! Cool stuff

Why did RU-vid need to show this to me? Why did i clikc it? Why did i watch it all? Love it

I would love to see you go ahead and open a bunch of your longer-lived eco-jars and take representative samples from them in order to make a succession jar of species that seem to cope well with tight nutrient loops. If you have any terrarium, you could use some of the soil from it and some long-lived plants and make a succession paludarium.

Sir David Attenborough shoild be watching his back… there’s a new nature narrator in town!

How many closed ecosystem do you have? I would love to see a video of you showing your full collection of jars

Maybe your copepods are smaller due to living in a smaller environment (in this case a jar) for the last 4 years. A bit like island dwarfism or something?🧐 I’m no expert in such things, but maybe something as small as those could adapt in that timeframe. Very cool video my friend 😎

You are the Tarantino under the jar filmers. Long time fan!

RU-vid hid your stuff from me, now I habe 8 month of content to catch up on... Wait a minute this is awsome

I hear the feral green parakeets of the Randstad in the background :D

You are quite a charming, and intelligent content creator. Instantly a fan.

I remember when you first started this channel , you have come along way !! 🎉

3:44 "Who knows... I DON'T!" 🗿 😂

always love seeing the yearly updates

Very distinguished gentleman! 🎉 Thanks for this interesting video

I love finding channels where I can learn things I'll never use about tiny little guys I'll never see with ny own eyes. Ostracods are particularly cool because theyve been around for ages and ages, you can sometimes find rocks made of millions of their shells in environments where they thrived!

The Anti-Gamer Ecosystem.

You're so smart. "Interesting to note is that the eight-eyed blood hedgehog is a nighttime predator. Since nighttime never arrived in this jar it might have stopped hunting as well, it could explain why it's the only animal that did not survive in this ecosystem for several years." It can live only for two years. It was only one in jar.

Congrats on your presentation. You manage to hit the right note every time.

You should do one that's only lit from the top, but wrapped on all sides to prevent light from getting in any other way. LEDs in the lid, foil on the sides. Observe in an unlit room with a night vision camera for periodic check-ins.

Let me guess: free floating algae. I've done this as well with the same result. The reason is algae have short life spans and are capable of rejuvenating themselves efficiently during cell division. Most other plants require dark periods occasionally for 'housekeeping'.

thanks for the 1/18000 of a football feild, i nearly died when i heard centimeter

This is the first time I was suggested a video of this subject. I'm intrigued!

9:33 "They take the glass butt!" I see you must also be a fan of Ze Frank!!

Can you cover the life cycle of a pony in a heavy saline fluid jar?

10:49 that duck just fit's in perfectly 👌👌

Question: what's keeping the oxygen levels up? I would think the levels would be low.

this is fascinating and itchy to watch at the same time

the description says it is "always illuminated and therefore never receives light"

What I also found interesting is that "Egel" in Dutch means Hedgehog, while "Egel" in German means Leech, while Hedgehog means "Igel". I looked it up, and it seems that Egel and Igel are related to snake or worm, and an "Igel" would be a snake- or worm-eater. Language is interesting.

5:49 that is exactly the color I dream of lemonade being.

That football field measurement equivalent really helped, Much appreciated. Lol

I JUST WATCHED THE LAST UPDATE ON THIS ONE LAST NIGHT WHAT ARE THE CHANCES YOU POST THIS TODAY!

I’m so glad he converted the length for me, it really help.

Dude, this is a war crime

@4:33 Who is this comedian who also does experiments with closed ecosystems? Truly a man of class and refinement... :P

10:15 - 10:57 I love the funny li'l bugs zooming arround

"1/18,000th of a football field, I hope that helps." 🤣 Thanks, that helps.

Interesting science project! The snails might be missing minerals like calcium or magnesium (the GH might be too low) or the water might have become more acidic (low pH), both will lead to shell-problems for the snails and affect adult/larger snails the most. It will also effect pods. If repeated, you might consider adding a GH/pH buffer and see if this will effect long term results. There are also slow-release fertilizers for aquarium substrate you might try out. O2 levels are also surely dropping creating anaerob conditions, as oxygen is incorporated into organic material. You might consider "carbonating" the water with CO2 initially before you close the jar, will increase growth of algae/plants and provide extra source of oxygen molecules.

"Hey dude i have an idea" "What is it? " "Let's dance until it's night tim-" *4 years later*

Oh yes ! The joy of Dutch daylight !

I am really curious what the difference between two jars would be if you filled the top part of one jar with pure oxygen and the other jar with pure CO2.

Love your sense of humor!

Love these videos ❤

Thank you for sharing your knowledge.

❤ I've had 2 closed ecosystems, the seed shrimp were my main survivors, does get day night but never really opens , somehow I still got frogsbit , 2 years running

I remember watching a video, (probably one made by you) where after a year or more, boogie worms reappeared after being presumed extinct in a closed jar eco system. Any chance they can do the same in this jar?

Love the weird 50s era television host energy you're channeling

As someone who doesn't honestly care that much, I still really enjoyed this. Even though the most jarring enlightenment might have been the experiment itself, we have still witnessed something. 5/7

How about another experiment with two jars linked by tubes, one constantly lit and one constantly dark? See if having a lightless refugium skews the outcome.

The “I left you guys… in the dark” got me😂

It's okay, I can picture a centimeter, despite being American. * Cleans 10mm pistol. *

in mine i have a flaworm that measures exactly 1/36,432 football fields. I also have a strange triop measuring 23/3422667 freedom bases long

You should do an experiment where there is a 12 hour day night cycle (6 hr day, and 6 hr night) and see what happens

It would be interesting to do this again but split the water between 3 jars. One with 24/7 light, one with 24/7 dark, and one with a 12 on 12 off light cycle.

“Eight eyed blood hedgehog” sounds so metal.