Wednesday, October 27, 2010

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.






Tuesday, October 19, 2010

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.