Final viewing

I viewed my aquarium again on Wednesday, November 12th, 2008. It had been over a week since my last viewing. This session had more of a somber feeling as it was the last time that I would be examining my aquarium. The atmosphere seemed to lend itself to this somber feeling. There were only a few students in the lab this time, and there seemed to be less activity in the tank itself. There was definitely less sediment in the bottom and also less water due to evaporation.
The rotifers also seemed to be fewer and farther between. Most of the shelled rotifers were smaller and mainly stayed close to the plant material. There were also less Epistylis and Philodinas. The few that I did see had grown quite fat. At one point, I thought that I had found a new kind of organism, but Dr. McFarland assured me that it was only a rotifer in the process of dying.
Though the number of rotifers was declining, there seemed to be many new organisms ready to take their place. The water in the lower half of the tank was filled with fine hair-like structures. At first, I was not that impressed until I noticed that some of the shorter strands were moving. Dr. McFarland let me know that these were strands of cyanobacteria.
Among the strands of cyanobacteria were several very handsome paramecia and a swarm of small oval ciliated protozoa. There were also several long necked organisms that had peaked my curiosity. I had seen one or two before, but was never able to identify them before. I had to ask Dr. McFarland. He identified them as Lacrymaria, and indeed they matched the picture found on page 138 of Free-Living Freshwater Protozoa by D.J. Patterson. The lacrymaria are funny little organisms that look like a worm that has swallowed a Christmas ornament. They reminded me a little of the Loch Ness Monster with their pointed teardrop shaped body and long searching neck.
Sadly, that was all I had time for that day. It has been a lot of fun discovering all these tiny creatures inhabiting ordinary spring water. I’m not sure what will become of our aquariums after this. For a little bit, I wish I could keep mine, but since I don’t have a microscope at home, I’ll just have to let it go. Maybe I’ll get some Sea Monkeys instead.

Third viewing

On Friday, October 31st, 2008, I viewed my aquarium for a third time. I was anxious to find out what effects the food pellet had. The changes were not as dramatic as I had expected. I examined the food pellet first to see what type of organisms were attracted to it. Having been in there for about a week, it was in a state of partial decomposition. There were swarms of rotifers nibbling on the loose ends. I was casually watching the feast when I discovered a new organism. It had attached itself to the bottom left quadrant of the food pellet. It had a long, narrow, transparent body with what appeared to be two spinning wheels on the outer end. I could also see some kind of organ inside of it, beating like a heart. Occasionally it would catch something with its two wheels and pull them inside of itself in a sort of gulping motion. After a moment, it would spit these two wheels back out and resume spinning them.



I looked at the lab poster and found that this new creature was yet another type of rotifer, but I was curious to find out how many different types of rotifers there actually were and what species did I have. With Dr. McFarland’s help, I found illustrations of my rotifers in one of the reference books. In particular:

Ward, Henry Baldwin and George Chandler Whipple. Freshwater Biology. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 1918.

From checking figures 958 and 959 on page 618 of Freshwater Biology, my best guess is that this newest rotifer is either a Philodina roseola or a Rotifer citrinus. The two figures look too similar for me to differentiate. I also checked figure 888 on page 592 to estimate that the previous rotifers were probably a type of shelled rotifer called Diplois daviesiae.

After this, I looked around the rest of the aquarium to see in any other changes had taken place. I was surprised to see quite a few of these new rotifers. There was also an increase in the number of epistylis and nemotodes. I also noticed quite a few dead Diplois rotifers in the bottom of the aquarium, and I saw a few trapped in the sacs of the carnivorous plant, Utricularia vulgaris. There was still no sign of the water flea, and I didn’t see any amoebas this time. There also seemed to be less dirt in the bottom of the aquarium, but I could be mistaken. I will have to wait till next Friday to be sure.

second viewing

On Friday, October 24th, I had the opportunity to examine my microaquarium for a second time. The aquarium was buzzing with activity this time around. Every micrometer of the aquarium held some sort of life.
I first went in search of the water flea that I discovered earlier. I was unable to locate it this time, but I did manage to find several organisms that matched the characteristics of the unidentified organism from the previous session. Most were in the bottom of the aquarium. They appeared to have their tails attached to bits of debris while they went back and forth nibbling on the debris. I did manage to capture a photo of one of these organisms. After checking the lab poster, I determined them to be a type of Rotifer.

Along with the increased number of rotifers, there was also an abundance of amoebas. These were easily identifiable because of their indefinite blob-like form. Their transparent bodies creeped slowly along. Their inner organs seemed to flow along with their outer movement.

I found another fascinating organism this time. Again, with the help of the lab poster, I identified as an epistylis. It had a transparent cup shaped body with a long cilia attaching it to a bit of plant material. The rim of the cup appeared to have small cilia that moved so rapidly that they created quite a current in the water. I watched as various bits of debris got caught in the current and were either sucked into the cup or bounced off. I also took a picture of it, but the cilia were moving to fast to be seen.

Also close by in the sediment, were some nemotodes and diatoms. The nemotodes were small worm-like creatures that occasionally popped their heads up out of the dirt and wiggled around. They moved much too fast for me to get a good picture. I did get a good picture of what I believe to be a diatom. I did not see many, but its geometric form seemed to make it stand out among the rest of the sediment.
Unfortunately that was all I had time for that day as the rest of the time was spent learning how to transfer pictures from the microscope to the computer. Before I left though, I found out that a food pellet had been added to the aquarium just that morning. It will be interesting to see how that affects the creatures this week. I plan to revisit the aquarium this Friday on the 31st.

Initial Setup

On Wednesday, October 15, I started my term project for Botany 111. I filled my MicroAquarium™ with water and sediment from dish 4. I also included bits from both plant A and plant B. When first examining my MicroAquarium™ under the microscope, I did not see any signs of life other than the bits of plant material. After about 5 minutes of searching, I finally found an organism in the lower left corner of the MicroAquarium™. At first, I thought it may have been a shrimp as it seemed to be trying to extend its tail, but when I checked the pond life ID kit on http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/, I determined it was a waterflea trying to extend its large “foot”. I watched it for a while as it just sat there and flip-flopped and rolled over. After a while, I grew tired and went in search of other organisms. I quickly found another organism swimming smoothly around, occasionally stopping to nibble on some bits of debris. It was transparent and spade shaped, with the point toward the front and a “tail” extending from where the stem should be. Occasionally it would flip over as it swam along, showing that it was also dome shaped with its underside being concave. I suspect it is some type of protozoa, but I have not found any pictures that match it perfectly. Maybe next time I’ll be able to take my own picture.



As a footnote, I should point out that the water source for my aquarium was from:

Horse Farm Pond, Carter Mill Road, Knox Co. Tennessee Partial shade exposure Well Feed Pond N36 00.431 W83 41.767 1069 ft 10/12/2008

As well as the two plants were:

Plant A. = Amblystegium varium (Hedw.) Lindb. Moss. Collection from: Natural spring. Fountain City Park west of Broadway at Hotel Ave. Knox Co. Knoxville TN. Partial shade exposure. N 36o02' 15.18" W083o55' 59.95"988 ft. 10/13/2008

Plant B. = Utricularia vulgaris L. Flowering Plant. A carnivous plant. Collection from: Greenhouse in White Ave Biology Annex. The University of Tennessee. 1400 White Ave. Knox Co. Knoxville TN.Partial shade exposure N 35o57' 33.45" W083o55' 42.01". 932 ft 10/13/2008