I started my first jar on October 25, 2025 from some soil and water from a nearby lake. Added dwarf hairgrass and anubias barteri on 11.5.25. It's been sitting in a west-facing window ever since!

I'm debating on thinning things out, but just watching the ebbs and flows of life in the jar is fun.

I just filled a jar from the drainage ditch at my apartment today and the snails have been my favorite to watch so far.

A year or so ago a user on here or a similar page created a jarrarium using tidepool water and captured a strange organism that had never been filmed before. It was identified but I cannot remember the name nor find the posts for the life of me. I appreciate the help!

I’ve had this jar for years and have tried a few things with it but nothing ever stuck. Never tried a jarrarium, so I’m looking for some inspiration….

It's about 60cm/24 inches tall with a pretty narrow hole.

Is it usable at all? Filling it with water would put a certain weight/force to the glass

They spontaneously appeared in my pond mud jar. Wish I could get a better video but it's difficult to get my camera to focus on them. These things are really cool.

I want to make a crick water jar. I bought a 1 gallon mason jar from Amazon and I started one last month. It was doing good, then I was overthinking leaving it on the shelf in the plant room where it got natural sunlight due to some post or comment I saw. I moved it down next to my fish tanks, but I only had a small light on it. I noticed a decline after I moved it. I tried moving it back to the shelf, but everything in it died within that day. It was a closed lid jar.

What do you guys use for light sources?
If it’s a closed lid jar what’s the chance of survival? I’ve seen people say it lasts for months to years in a closed jar ecosystem. Maybe my lid wasn’t secure enough either?

Any advice on the basics of jarrariums would be helpful.

Thanks!

Jarrarium is almost on week 4 and was collected from a stream in Ontario. Jars lively with scuds, planaria and a couple isopods, all seem to be doing well so far!
Found this guy on the glass today, thought it was a leaf at first because it just showed up and hasn’t moved all day. Then spotted what look like his insides!
Would love any ideas or help identifying him. First time jarrarium owner so learning a lot as I go!

Scooped up some lake soup the other day and I love these aquatic crustaceans, there's a bit of a scum / bad smell developing and I figure thats bacterial bloom, I have an air stone coming in the mail but I would appreciate some advice :)

Materials include:
Sticky substrate mix (coir, worm castings, clay powder)
Leca
Activated Charcoal
Sphagnum moss
Sterilised leaf litter
Terrarium substrate (coir, worm castings, bark, sand)
Honeycomb wood
Terrarium mister
Asparagus setaceus
Selaginella apoda
Asplenium nidus
Ficus pumila
Polystichum tsus-simense
Adiantum fragrans
Pilea mollis
Leucobryum glaucum
Thuidium tamariscinum
Springtails
Water
Air
Gravity
Time

Started seeing new roots growing from the plants. You can see one on the left side of the video. Some algae is beginning to grow on the sides of the jar. Loving my lil snail buddies. Hopefully they can keep the algae in check.

Not much to report. Was kind of expecting to see some casualties thus far. There’s one amphipod carcass that’s been there since the second day. Still need to go get some water test strips.

Both are 2 liters, tightly sealed. I've been opening them once every few days to balance moisture, but I'm planning to leave them sealed. Different rocks for drainage and different types of soil for substrate. First one started over a month before, so the second may look less mature in comparison

Jarrarium #1: polka dot plant, a little random thorned plant from my front yard and white springtails

Jarrarium #2: peperomia argyria, moss and white isopods (trichonina tormentosa)

Do I need to do water changes for something like this? The water is very clear. A few bladder snails are loving life. Working on names for them. The scuds cleared all the film off the plants. I added a few more of the same and plant from the ditch. I think the long worms are earthworms. Not sure if they can survive in this jar. No idea what the tiny red worms are, but seems like they will survive. There’s a lot of activity, it’s really cool.

It’s been about 24 hours since I started the jar. The water has cleared up nice. So far I’ve seen snails, amphipods, two types of worms, and lots of tiny creatures. I’m thinking about adding one more of those plants from the ditch, but not sure if I should wait and see how this one does.

Scooped up some silt and water from the ditch next to where I live. About 24 hours later and the water has really cleared up. Lots of activity!

Scooped up some silt and water from the ditch next to where I live. Added one of the plants from the ditch to the jar. Will be updating daily. Anybody know what kind of plant that is?

The first photo is my Jarrarium the day it was sealed on Oct 11, 2020. All local plants and moss. The next 2 photos are the same jar after being completely sealed for 6 years!