Week 2

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Week 2

When I first looked at my aquarium this week, I could see that my plants were just as I left them. However, they did seem to have grown a little which I suppose is because I added a food pellet at the end of my observations last week. When I began my observations, the first thing I notice was how much bigger my nematodes had gotten some seemed to doubled in size. Furthermore, I discovered that I had mistaked their identity; what I have been calling nematodes are actually annelids. I have discovered there are two species of annelids living in my aquarium. One of which is pictured above the second picture down. I observed this organism pulling food into its mouth with appendages under its mouth. Its movement is very spastic. I also observed several euplotes through out the aquarium. It is the first picture from the top. Areas with more concentrated groups of euplotes were around the plants. There was a dead annelid in the bottom of my aquarium where the largest concentration of urocentrum were located and stayed located the entire time. There seem to be a hundred in that area. It is the third picture from the top. A lot of the rotifers were hanging out around the half dissolved food pellet; however, they could also be found around the plants and the dirt. My main observation for this week was that there seemed to be more of everything and they all seemed to be a little larger.

Friday, October 23, 2009

Week 1

At first glance with my naked-eye, I realized that the majority of the algae I had placed in my aquarium was gone; furthermore, the Utricularia vulgaris L. Flowering or plant B had obviously been eaten on. Once I began to look under the microscope, it was apparent that Amblystegium varium (Hedw.) Linda. Moss. or plant A's leaves had been eaten on as well. My first organism, which I believe to be a nematode, was wrapped around plant B. As I continued to observe him, I realized that it had a tongue like feature that would protrude out grabbing and pulling in food which you could then see his intestine contract to pull down his body. I observed 3 other nematodes in the dirt accumulated at the bottom of the aquarium. There were hundreds of rotifers (which can be seen in the image with the red circle above) that were eating on every thing in the aquarium and they were pretty much in constant motion. I watch as they crawled up and down the plants and then would swim to a new location. I also observed a freshwater shrimp. It was made up of two shell like pieces that were dark brown in color and had 3 black stripes across where they met. I only saw one of these organisms and it stayed in the dirt the whole time. I also observed a organism that I was unable to identify; it was round and transparent with a smaller circular organ I could see inside of the organism with fast move limbs attached to it. It also appeared to have eyes. I saw it for a brief moment in the dirt; moreover,in the dirt I could see new algae growing it out of it which can be seen in the image above also.

Week 1: Setup

Tuesday, October 14, 2009

Today we setup our Micro Aquariums. I filled mine with water 12 which is water from a water pool below a spring in Foutain City Park; moreover, when I filled it I made sure to include some of the algae and sediment floating in the water. I also added a small piece of plant A {Amblystegium varium (Hedw.) Lindb. Moss} and plant B (Amblystegium varium (Hedw.) Lindb. Moss) ( Utricularia vulgaris L. Flowering) ; however, I made sure when I placed them in my Micro Aquarium that I keep each plant as separated as possible so that in the future I may be able to distinguish which organisms prefer to hang out were. After we complete forming the environment of our Micro Aquariums, we looked at them under a microscope. I was amazed when I saw my first glimpse of life in my aquarium. I saw a transparent worm-like organism that was actually visible to the naked eye. As I watch him, it seemed to me that he was eating on the dirt and algae. I could see his intestinal tract contracting to pull his food through his body where it accumulated at the body's end. I also saw a small transparent tear-shaped organism that moved by spinning and spiraling in circles. The third and final organism I spotted was a transparent oval organism that I could see two organs with in although they were too small to determine their function. This organism never turned around to move instead it would back up and move forward again to change direction. Just like when trying to turn a car around in a very tight spot.