Week 5 Observations

This is the finial week of observations, which is probably a good thing because the first thing I noticed about my tank is that the water had pretty much 2/3rds evaporated, and upon putting it under the microscope, I noticed that a lot of my larger organisms had died.


Observations:

Many of my rotifers, ostracods, and my Diptera had all perished by the finial week of observations, and my tank was murky and filled even more so with diatoms, cyanobacteria, and paramecium. My bladderworts all housed even more small ostracods, and I spotted a few clear ones swimming around- unlike the larger brown ostracods my tank housed in the beginning.

I did not find any new organisms in my tank the finial week, but there was definitely a decrease in the larger microscopic organisms then the week prior, probably due to lack of resources for food since so much water had evaporated.





Citations:
McFarland, Ken. An Inquiry into the Dynamic Microorganisms in Our Environment. Biology 111 2010, 4 Oct. 2010. Web. 12 nov. 2010.

Week Four Observations

Initial Observations:

My water was a lot more murky than the previous week, and my Diptera specimen had grown considerably and was still kicking up the soil and knocking the plants around inside my micro-aquarium.



Observations:

Perhaps my water was so much murkier because there was a whole new host of organisms. There were more than double to already huge number of diatoms, as well as tons of paramecium swimming in all the levels of the mini tank. There were also green algae structures in some spots of the aquarium.


Also, there were a new species of rotifers, Philodina, all along my Fontinalis moss.




Other interesting things I noticed is that my Utricularia gibba bladders were hosts of baby ostracods, which I could not get a clear picture of them in the bladders, I got a picture of one of the older and bigger ostracods that was rummagging freely about the tank:

Also, I noticed a few Vorticella around the top and bottom of the tank as well.








Citations:

 Lee JC, Hunter S, Bovee EC, editors. 1985. Illistrated Guide to Protozoa. Lawrence, Kansas: Allen Press Inc. 600 p.

Patterson D. 2003. Free-living Freshwater Protozoa. Washington, DC: Manson publishing. 400 p.

Week 3 Observations

Initial Observations:

The first thing I noticed about my micro-aquarium without even placing it under the microscope was the large bug larva swimming around in circles, throwing up all my soil and knocking into my plants haphazardly. Also, my water level had gone down significantly.

Observations:
Upon further observations I identified the larva as a Diptera species, or mosquito larva. It was also swimming around eating many of my rotifers.

This is the head of the Diptera, eating some micro-organisms in the soil at the bottom of my tank.



I also noticed a cyclops that I didn't notice before, which swam in the middle of the tank during all my observations.

Upon further inspection of the "bladders" on my bladderwort, I noticed that some of them were crawling with paramecium. The spun in circles inside the plant structure constantly.

This is a picture of the bladderwort at 4x magnification.

But at a 10X magnification you can see all the little paramecium inside the bladderwort, they look like little pieces of rice.

Those are the most interesting things I noticed in my micro-aquarium in the third week of obervations.

Citations:

Patterson D. 2003. Free-living Freshwater Protozoa. Washington, DC: Manson publishing. 400 p.