Thread by @MollyMcKew

So, a story about an aquarium ecosystem that is possibly a Washington metaphor.

My niece & nephew have a lot of pets. They (of course) got hermit crabs in Chincoteague two summers ago. It was clear the crabs were miserable in their tiny cage, so we got them an aquarium /1

All in all these are pretty good -- heated, humidified -- digs for two crabs that are basically seagull snacks.

At night, they are crazy active. During the day, they burrow into the floor guck & sleep there where it is damp. This made the daytime aquarium snoozeville viewing. /2

So my bro-in-law got these two anoles (lizard things) to be the daytime inhabitants of the tank. They change colors and are suuuuuuuper jumpy, so they really to the excitement value of the tank.

Here they are napping between their plant fronds -- their favorite spot. /3

The anoles -- who are, by the way, complete escape artists -- eat live things, so this also brought crickets and superworms to the tank. And, since escape artists, the lid is weighted down now with orchids, which is quite nice. /4

But the anoles prefer the crickets to the superworms, which are actually larvae of darkling beetles, so the worms morphed into the beetles -- which look like this, and yes, they are as big as they seem in the scale of this photo. /5

The beetles are actually quite entertaining and active. They mate a lot, and hatch worm babies, and every so often they possibly eat each other so the population stays stable. They are scavengers so they eat whatever (including the crickets) and the tank stays pretty clean. /6

All in all, this is a great, self-sustaining set-up. A little ecosystem requiring only occasional crickets.

At some point, one of the crabs got really happy.
We realized the other hermit crab had died and it had eaten it, apparently getting the energy it needed for tunneling /7

A little grim, but, ok. Nature and stuff.

One of the anoles had had what was clearly some kind of gland tumor for awhile. But it seemed ok.

One day my sister went to mist them and there was only one anole in the cage. It didn't seem to have gotten out. But it was gone. /8

After more searching, my sister went to the pet store to get a replacement before the kids got home, and my bro-in-law is poking around the cage. A couple of the beetles move, and there is what is clearly a picked-clean anole skeleton. /9

The anole had died, and in the matter of maybe a day and a half, been totally eaten by the beetles (probably with an assist from the remaining subterranean crab).

This is super cool and vaguely terrifying, that what was formerly food is now the scariest thing in the tank /10

But we can't even tell the kids b/c of course NO ANOLES EVER DIED HERE but the one's tumor got better real fast. /11

Meanwhile, the beetles are in there, toddling around, waiting to strip more flesh from the bones of whatever isn't paying attention.

No wonder everything else is always hiding in plants and guck. /12

This is another version of "spiders in a jar" -- a good description of the Kremlin or the team around this POTUS alike.

Everything is waiting for the chance to eat everything else, in vicious and surprising ways. And I'm not actually sure what I am rooting for. /13

This is a lot like Washington generally -- stuff that is just regular garbage pickers in other place gets brought together into a new environment, and everyone takes turns thinking they are king of the tank, but you rest for one minute and friend or foe alike will eat you... /14

...And then smile, and blame something else for eating you. /15