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