About two weeks ago I purchased an EcoSphere from Brookstone in my local mall. They have a few different sizes and shapes available (you can see the full range here at Amazon). I bought one from Brookstone because I could see them for myself before buying one, and pick out the one I wanted. I wasn’t 100% ready to buy one, I wanted to see one first.
So I bought the small sphere. I liked the round shape better than the little tall ones. Brookstone didn’t have the larger sizes, but I’m not sure I would been willing to pay more any way. If I had to do it again, I think I would make the same choice, but there is one thing that I hadn’t considered: the glass acts like a magnifying glass. This should have been obvious to me, but I’m guessing that would be reduced if I bought the “pod” shape instead of the sphere.
The little sphere is sitting on my desk at work, on a little stand that it comes with that acts like a Lazy Susan if I want to turn it. The sphere causes a fair amount of magnification, so if I look towards the center and I see a shrimp it looks about 50% larger than it’s real size. This actually makes viewing them quite easy.
So I chose an EcoSphere with four little shrimp, tentatively named Inky, Blinky, Pinky, and Clyde. They are named after the four ghosts in Pac-Man (at least the American names) because that was the best set of four names I could think of. Watching the little guys move about is quite interesting. I’ve noticed a few characteristics, but I can’t tell them apart (yet?).
What I’ve Seen
I have noticed a few things about my little shrimp friends. The company gave me a general confirmation on these things when I asked, but didn’t go into details.
The thing that surprised me the most is that they have control over their coloring, like some other creatures (such as many Squid). They vary from almost bright red, to a transparent white. I know they are capable of changing this because I have essentially witnessed it. I seem to notice it most when stressed. When they get moved around (such as when I brought them from home to my work), some of them will change color like this, and they all tend to fade. One of them is really fond of being colorless. It’s rare for that one shrimp (Clyde, because he’s the only one I can really identify at all) does this somewhat frequently. The others are often colorful, some more than others.
They love to go scurrying around the sphere as fast as they can. They manipulate the gravel (presumably to check for microscopic stuff on them to eat), climb on the coral in there (same reason), and poke at the little “tumbleweed” of algae that is in there. They are at times quite, standing mostly still and not doing much, and at other times very active, running around as fast as they can.
It’s been a ton of fun to watch, and I’m glad I bought it.
I’d like to take some pictures of it, but I haven’t brought my camera in yet. I figure it will be quite a challenge. There is no question I’ll have to use my macro lens, but because the glass is spherical I can only focus on a very tiny area at one period of time. This should make getting a whole shrimp in focus at once a very difficult task. I may have to hope that one simply sits still long enough that I can do some focus bracketing, letting me combine exposures in Photoshop to get an image fully in focus.
