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.