Week 5 Observation (November 18th 2014)

I did not observe my aquarium last week so this observation was made a little over a week after my previous one. There seemed to be lots of life in my aquarium once again this week, and after focusing the microscope, I immediately observed a very large nematode. The nematode was larger than any I'd seen in the weeks previous and was moving around very quickly. I also identified two new organisms I have not seen before. Figure 1 is a  Coleochaete irregularis or green algae (Forest 89). The second organism I identified (figure 2) is a Limnias sp. which is a type of rotifer (Patterson and Hedley 216). The Limnias appeared to be enclosed in a shell attached to a plant stalk. As I watched, it swiveled around in it's shell a few times and seemed to be sucking in tiny pieces of food in the water around it.

Figure 1: Coleochaete irregularis (green algae)

Forest, Herman Silva. Handbook of Algae. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1954. Print.

Figure 2: Limnias sp.

Patterson, David J., and Stuart Hedley. Free Living Freshwater Protozoa: A Color Guide. London: Wolfe, 1992. Print.

Week 4 (November 10, 2014)

Citations: Patterson, David J. Free-living Freshwater Protozoa: A Colour Guide. New York: Wiley, 1996. Print.

Week 3 (November 3rd)

The food pellet seemed to bring my aquarium back to life this week. Last week I saw a lot of dead nematodes in my aquarium, but this week there were some live nematodes around the remnants of the food pellet. Despite this, I did see a lot of the dead nematodes that I saw last week towards the bottom and middle of my aquarium. I also observed a larger organism near the food pellet that I have not seen in the previous weeks. This organism was large enough that I did not need to use the microscope to observe it. However, I did try to observe it through the microscope but it was too fast to be able to observe for a long period of time. It was cylindrical in shape and propelled itself using what appeared to be tiny legs. It kind of resembled a very small shrimp. I was not able to figure out what it was but look forward to my observation next week to see if it has changed or reproduced somehow.

Week 2 (October 26th, 2014)

This week, I did not observe any new organisms in my aquarium. In fact, I did not see any living organisms in my aquarium. I did, however, see several dead nematodes, or at least I assumed they were dead. I saw about 6 nematodes in my aquarium, and none of them were moving and they displayed no signs of life. I am not sure why this was, but I assume something in the water must have killed them. Hopefully I can figure out what happened next time I make observations.

Week One (October 14, 2014)

Setup and Water Source

This week I set up my MicroAquarium by first assembling the glass tank, stand, and lid. The next step was to add water. I chose to use water from the spring below the Lynnhurst Cemetery off of Adair drive (N36 01.357 W83 55.731 958) When adding the water, I used a pipet to extract some of the water from the bottom of the sample dish so I could deposit a layer of dirt at the bottom of my aquarium. After I had a thin layer of dirt at the bottom of my aquarium, I collected some of the water from the middle of the sample dish and then the top so I would have a better variety of organisms to observe. Once this was done, I collected some amblestegium varium (Hedwig) moss from another sample dish that came from a natural spring at Carters Mill Park. The last item I added to my aquarium was utricularia gibba, a flowering carnivorous plant that came from the south shore of Spain Lake in White County, TN.

Observation

After I assembled my aquarium, I used a microscope to make observations. 

The first organism I observed was black and had a circular shape. It seemed to float around in circles while I watched it. I think that it was eating/absorbing nutrients, but I'm not sure. I observed 3 or 4 of these organisms towards the middle and top of my aquarium. They all appeared to be moving in circles.

The second organism I observed, Dr. McFarland identified as a nematode. It was dark colored and string shaped and seemed to move around randomly and whip back and forth. Again, I believe this was its way of eating. I found many of these organisms towards the bottom and middle of the tank, and they varied in size. I did observe that these organisms seemed to prefer being near the moss.