The Terrarium

In my dream, I had just woken up and gotten out of bed. I walked over to my desk, and found it in disarray. I figured one of the cats had jumped on it and scattered stuff around. I began to sort through the papers and other objects, and I found a tiny transparent container (the size and shape of a tub of sour cream) with numerous fish swimming in it. On closer inspection, it also housed tiny plants and insects. It was a terrarium. I realized that it was a perfectly self-contained ecosystem; even though it was buried and forgotten under junk on my desk for who knows how long, everything inside it was still alive.

I turned around and was surprised to see more of the same fish on the floor. Instead of flopping about like fish out of water famously do, they were hovering millimeters above the floor, making swimming motions, but not moving forward. Occasionally the would fall over sideways (presumably from fatigue), hitting the floor, and then would resume their futile, mid-air swim.