Final Observation

Since last week:
     
     After my viewing time in the lab last week, I added a few drops of distilled water to my aquarium which it had lost to evaporation.


Observation

     The total amount of life in the aquarium has dropped back to about where it was in Week 1, but it's a very different scene than it was then. Cyanobacteria and green algae (which I identified from my Botany 111 course lecture and lab) grew to very large populations, especially the cyanobacteria, and now can be seen at almost any point in the tank through the microscope.

     The diatom population also grew quite rapidly after the food pellet was added. This week, many dead and broken diatom shells litter the bottom half of the tank, even though there are still many more living diatoms this week than in the beginning. I have included an image of some diatom species in my tank (the small egg-shaped organisms clinging to the cyanobacteria are also diatoms, identified by Dr. Mcfarland.)

    











Newly observed this week were several Difflugia sp., identified from Free-Living Freshwater Protozoa, D.J. Patterson on p. 95, fig. 186. It has a tall lightbulb-shaped shell that is rough in appearance. Difflugia is an amoeba that makes this shell from its environment. It moves by extending amorphous "legs" and looks kind of like a snail in its speed and motion. These protozoans were mostly in the middle of my tank, with many flagellates eating from its shell.

     Here is an image I took of one of my Difflugia sp.

     I observed more Lacrymaria sp. this week, fewer flagellates, and some Halteria sp. Also Identified from Free-Living Freshwater Protozoa. On my last scan through the tiny habitat I noticed a little organism with one "leg" stuck to a plant, with two clusters of cilia on its main body. This is a Vorticella sp. (p. 13, Ciliated Protozoa, Hartmut Bick, 1972).             I thought this little guy was pretty adorable,   just floating there with his cilia clusters spinning like little helicopters.

Thank you all for reading my blog, I had a lot of fun observing and reporting on my tiny habitat. 

Don't drink the water!!!

-Jon
 

Observation #3

Observation

      Last week, after the food pellet was added, I observed rapid growth of the population in my aquarium. Many more organisms were present, resulting in higher competition, which has led to many more dead organisms in the tank this week.

      I've identified my clear, long, worm-like creatures as Nematodes. I haven't seen the carpenter's ruler colonies in the past 2 weeks, but many more diatoms altogether. I observed small ellipsoid-shaped diatoms stuck to some root-like plant structures, as well as more of the square diatoms I described last week. My water sample is full of cyanobacteria colonies, I was unable to identify these until this week, but the species looks like Oscillatoria; hairlike structures that twitch and move slowly and smoothly. I took a video of a Lacrymaria sp. near the bottom of my aquarium, identified from the book Free-Living Freshwater Protozoa, D.J Patterson, 1996, p. 138, figure 301.

      The Lacrymaria is the amorphous organism I described last week, one can see from the video how it moves. The contracting and expanding of the vacuole in its posterior makes the organism able to extend its "neck" and "tail".

I find the mechanism of motion very interesting, but also slightly repulsive. But Dr. McFarland eased my nausea by informing me that there are unicellular organisms like this inside my own body... 

Observation #2

Betta Food Pellet

      On October 22, 2010, one pellet of fish food was added to each microaquarium. The fish food used was "Atison's Betta Food" made by Ocean Nutrition, Aqua Pet Americas, 3528 West 500 South, Salt Lake City, UT 84104. Ingredients: Fish meal, wheat flower, soy meal, krill meal, minerals, vitamins and preservatives. Analysis: Crude Protein 36%; Crude fat 4.5%; Crude Fiber 3.5%; Moisture 8% and Ash 15%. 

Observation

      I viewed my tank 4 days after the food pellet was added, and a lot has changed since observation one. In the first observation, the most activity in my aquarium was in and around the sediment. Most of these organisms were flagellates, (which I incorrectly called ciliates in the last post.) This week, the amount of life in the habitat increased greatly, now flat, fast-moving, disk-like  ciliates are dominating the food pellet area, with most of the flagellates from last week being restrained to the other areas. I was not able to identify any dead organisms, nor could I locate the Carpenter's Ruler diatom colonies. I did, however, view many stationary diatoms, most of them perfectly square or rectangle, they look roughly like this : [][][] 
     As well as new plant growth, I viewed two snails, which are now some of the largest organisms in the aquarium, as well as some more of the large, clear, worm-like organisms, which I still have not identified. 
     Some of the "new" organisms this week were small, amorphous organisms which did not seem to have cilia or flagella, but rather moved by stretching (usually short-worm shaped), and small oval-shaped organisms which are only a fraction the size of most of the ciliates and flagellates. I hypothesize that these may be immature bodies of some of the same organisms, but they are mostly the same size, and I don't see an even stratification in size, (that is, the biggest ones are still only about a quarter the size of most other organisms present.) 

     I have a lot of organisms to classify now, I will be researching and posting results soon.

Set-up and Observation #1

Set-up

     First, I obtained a MicroAquarium, with a base and a lid. Next I color-coded my tank to my specific section, table, and seat number with small colored stickers. This code is to keep record of everyone's individual aquaria. 

     I then selected a water source, the French Broad River at Seven Islands Wildlife Refuge, in Knox county, TN.  I should mention that there were 13 total water samples, collected by the instructor, and each student was to choose one. In order to collect a decent stratification of organisms and sediment, I drew one pipette full of water from the sediment, injected it into my aquarium, then repeated that process from the top of the water sample, and the middle. Then I added live Plant A (Fontinalis sp. Moss) and live Plant B (Utricularia gibba L.) Which is an insectivorous plant. The plant material is useful in oxygenating the small habitat.

Observation

     Now, with all samples inside my aquarium, I flipped the tank onto its side and onto the mechanical stage of the lab microscope. The water stays inside the tiny tank, how cool! I powered on the microscope, and starting with the 4x lens, I began observing. There was plenty to see at this level of magnification, the first (mobile) object I viewed was clear, long, shaped like an okra, and was moving smoothly into a clump of brown sediment. At the 10x magnification, I saw many ciliates, mostly clear, but I am not able to identify these yet. I was very excited to see two colonies of bacillaria diatoms (carpenter's rulers), the first colony I watched was condensing and expanding and seemed to be clinging to some plant material.

     Check back next week and I will have more observations and identifications to share.