Day 1 of the MicroAquarium

We finally setup our micro aquariums this week. I've been curious about this project since it was first mentioned at the beginning of this semester. While observations and pictures will follow in the next couple of weeks, I just setup the aquarium and had a quick look at all the critters I could find this week.

The Setup

We first had to build the micro aquariums using a glass tank, and stand holder, and a lid. Each student had to label their aquarium with colored stickers and initials in order to distinguish it from the others. From there, each student had to choose between 12 different water sources from the Knoxville area. I chose source 3, Carter Mill Park at spring source (McFarland, 2014). This water was obtained by Dr. McFarland on October 12, 2014. The steps I took to set up my aquarium are as follows:

1. I extracted a small layer of dirt from the bottom of source sample 3 so that it barely covered the bottom of my aquarium.
2. I them took some water from the middle of the sample as well as the surface so that I could get a variety of organisms in my aquarium.
3. I then put pieces of two different plants that were provided so that they could oxygenate the water (McFarland, 2014). The two plants I used are:

• Amblestegium varium (Hedwig) Lindberg. Moss.
  Collection from: Natural spring. at Carters Mill Park, Carter Mill Road, Knox Co. TN. Partial shade exposure. N36 01.168 W83 42.832. 10/12/2014
• Utricularia gibba L. Flowering plant. A
  carnivorous plant. Original material from south shore of Spain Lake (N 35o55 12.35" W088o20' 47.00), Camp Bella Air Rd. East of Sparta Tn. in White Co. and grown in water tanks outside of greenhouse at Hesler
  Biology Building. The University of Tennessee. Knox Co. Knoxville TN.
  10/12/2014

Observations

Once I had my micro aquarium setup and ready to go, I took a look at it through a microscope to see what I had captured. I didn't see that much at first, but when I looked at my aquarium through 100x magnification, I saw a lot of tiny organisms squirming about. Dr. McFarland confirmed my suspicions that that was there way of eating (which is really all they do). I also saw a fairly large worm like organism that spent all its time thrashing about sporadically, also eating. I suspect I will be seeing many different organisms in the weeks to come as they continue grow.