This week, I first noticed that there was no food pellet.  This caused an absence of concentration of organisms, but their numbers overall, had grown.  The paramecia, most of all, had divided and were about double in number from the first observation.  Several new organisms have also appeared.  The most abundant of the newer organisms was the diatom.  Diatoms are phytoplankton that form algae and contain chloroplasts.  I found diatoms scattered all throughout the MicroAquarium during this observation.  There was also an increase in seed shrimp.  Another organism I found, but only found one of, was the Arcella.

Second post

This week, I went straight to the microscope, and began observing the aquarium for noticeable changes. Another food pellet was placed in the tank.  The first organism I saw was a rotifer philodina, which was anchoring itself to the wall of the tank.  I noticed a few more of these.  There were also a few paranemae, single-celled protists with a long flagellae used for movement.  It might be worth noting that I lost some water while viewing the aquarium, too, but it was replaced. Also, I misspelled the caption on the peranema photo.

First Observation

This was my first real observation of the MicroAquarium.  I started by looking at the tank without magnification, to see if there were any organisms already visible.  I observed large, fast-moving organisms, which I then looked at under the microscope.  The organisms that were visible without magnification I later learned were Seed shrimp.  Seed shrimp, or ostracods, are members of the animal kingdom and exist primarily as plankton on the sea floor.  Seed shrimp reproduce sexually, and have a range of diets including herbivorous, carnivorous, scavenger, and filter-feeder.  Also, in the tank, I noticed a number of single-celled organisms.  These were slow-moving, and stayed mainly near the food pellet.  There were also some stationary organisms called vorticellae, which stayed clustered together, and had flagellae.

Set-up

To start this project, I added water to my MicroAquarium.  Using a pipette, I collected water from the top, middle, and lower areas of the container, which helped obtain some dirt for the bottom of the aquarium as well. The water came from a variety of sources.  I chose the water that originally came from a bird bath (at Fountain Rd. Knox Co. Knoxville TN Partial shade exposure N 36o02.249' W083o55.999' 1121 ft 10/9/2011).  I then added two plants, which are listed below.  Plant B quickly fell apart, and mostly floated on the surface, or sank.  I didn't notice many organisms in the aquarium at first viewing.


Plant A:  Amblestegium sp. Moss. Collection from: Natural spring. at Carters Mill Park, Carter Mill Road, Knox Co. TN. Partial shade exposure. N36 01.168 W83 42.832. 10/9/2011


Plant B:  Utricularia gibba L. Flowering plant. A carnivous plant. Original material from south shore of Spain Lake (N 35o55 12.35" W088o20' 47.00), Camp Bella Air Rd. East of Sparta Tn. in White Co. and grown in water tanks outside of greenhouse at Hesler Biology Building. The University of Tennessee. Knox Co. Knoxville TN.