First Week's Observation - Oct. 23

At first glance this week, there did not seem to be much change to my micro aquarium. The number of unicellular organisms seems to have increased since I set up the aquarium, but other than that, nothing substantial. This week, with the help of Dr. McFarland and the book Fresh Water Invertebrates of the United States by Robert W. Pennak, I was able to identify most of critters I could find.

-This first organism I found was an annelid. It was relatively large, worm shaped critter. It's movements were inconsistent and sporadic. Sometimes, it would sit relatively still for a while and at other times it would thrash around (I'm assuming that's how it eats). It stayed at the bottom of the tank near the dirt and plants.

-I also found several Limnais (Figure J). These organisms were the most interesting in my opinion. They attach a tube to various surfaces (This one attached itself to one of the plants) and hang out the end of it. As you can see in Figure J, they have these tendrils that move in a chainsaw looking motion. If they feel a disturbance, like me tapping on the glass, they withdraw into their tubes. These organisms were found at the bottom of the aquarium, either on the plants or the dirt.

Figure J p.218 (Robert W. Pennak 1989)

-There was also a small oval shaped organism with a tail called a uclaneus rohefur. There were several of these around the micro aquarium and they didn't seem to be located in any specific location. Their movement was relatively slow, but constant.

-The most numerous of the critters in the aquarium were small single-celled organisms, or "swimming cells". These were too small to identify and were typically circular or oval shaped. These organisms were very energetic and were constantly moving in various patterns.

While these were the organisms that I saw, I'm certain there a ton more to be found and identified in my micro aquarium. Hopefully we'll see these in the coming weeks.