Fourth Week's Observation - Nov. 13

My aquarium has continued to grow greener. This week, there was much more blue-green algae and the filament clusters were much bigger than last week. The plants have also grown significantly since I created my aquarium. Now, instead of occupying only a portion of the space in my aquarium, they have grown to fill almost the entire area. Just like last week, the amount of organisms has increased to an all time high. There are many more small, multicellular and unicellular organisms that inhabit my aquarium. They are the most densely populated near the plants, and since the plants have spread to every centimeter of my aquarium, These tiny critters can be seen everywhere. There are still more dead organisms, mostly small swimming cells, but with the increase of plant and algae life, these are harder to see making it look less like a tiny microscopic graveyard.

 Organisms

- I saw more limnias this week after most of them seemed to have died last week. They were still mostly connected to the dirt and plants near the bottom of the aquarium.

- There were several annelids digging in the dirt at the bottom of my aquarium. There two really big ones that I suspect are the ones I have been seeing getting bigger since the inception of my aquarium.

- I saw a new organism called a chaetonotus (Figure E). It can't be seen at this magnification, but it has cilia on its front to help it move around. It was relatively slow moving and didn't make sharp movements.

Figure E p. 171 (James H. Tharp 2010)

- I also saw a nematode. It was similar to annelids in shape and movement with a few differences. It was much skinnier than an annelid and its head and anus were indistinguishable.

- Something interesting I saw this week was a free swimming stentor. It had detached itself from whatever it was growing on and was swimming around freely. I hadn't seen this in any of my other observations. I only ever saw them attached to plants and the dirt.

- There were also a couple clusters of green algae. The clusters consisted of about ten circular algae cells that had distinct green centers. There was a barely visible film around the algae cells and none of the cells breached each other.

Third Week's Observation - Nov. 4

There was quite a drastic change to my micro aquarium this week. Like last week, there were noticeably more living organisms in my aquarium, but unlike last week, there were a bunch of dead ones too. Before, I would occasionally see a couple dead critters floating around, but this week, my aquarium was a tiny graveyard. Most of the dead organisms were rohefurs and other unicellular organisms. I also noticed that many of the limnias were dead or gone. The week of Oct. 28, I saw an abundance of limias around my aquarium, but there were only I few left this week. Even though many of the organisms died, there still seemed to be an increase in population in my aquarium, mostly small swimming cells. These tend to hangout around the plants, I assume for food. Also, my aquarium had lost almost half of its water! I believe it was from evaporation. 

Organisms

- There were a couple annelids digging around the plants and dirt near the bottom. Both of them were very large, much larger than the one I observed the previous week. They were both very active.

- I saw a couple vorticella (Figure 233). Like the stentors I covered last week, they were tethered to plants and would react to movement from the environment (it would retract towards the plant).

Figure 233 p. 113 (D.J. Patterson 2003)

- I found several stentors. The seemed to have avoided the mass death because I did not find many that were dead.

- Blue-green algae was everywhere. Before this week, there wasn't any in my aquarium, by now it seems to have taken over. Even without the microscope, I could see the algae populating my aquarium. I'm not sure if this had anything to do with all the dead organisms. 

Second Week's Observation - Oct. 28

This week, there was definitely a change in my micro aquarium. This change was probably heavily influenced by the food pellet that Dr. McFarland put into the aquarium. The food was placed in my aquarium on Oct. 24, 2014. The data for the food pellet can be found at the end of this post. The amount of organisms in the aquarium was significantly greater than it was just one week ago. Before, I would have to searched for bit to find anything, but this week, everywhere I looked, there were critters swimming around. The most numerous of the organisms that I saw were unicellular swimming cells. Anywhere I looked in my aquarium, there were always several in my view. Also I noticed that the traps on the plants seemed to have much more dead organisms in side of them and I don't know if this was caused by natural progression of time or by the increased amount of organism within the aquarium. Either way, the plants are definitely getting their fill.

Organisms

- Just like last week, I saw a single annelid. I'm not sure if it was the same annelid from last week, but if it was, then it had grown almost twice it's size! This growth was probably influenced by the food pellet that was placed in the aquarium. An interesting note about this annelid is that it was not within a tube, which is uncommon. Most annelids reside within a tube, but I guess this one decided it was too good for that.

- I saw several Raphidiophrys (Figure 405). There were about ten in near proximity to each other near the bottom of the aquarium. These were circular with long, slightly rigid spindles sticking out, very much like a sea urchin. They have a vacuole to regulate water inside of them and you can actually see it release water every so often. The one in figure 405 can actually be seen splitting.

Figure 405 p.173 (D.J. Patterson 2003)

- I observed that there were many more limnias populating my aquarium from last week.

-  I also observed a Stentor (Figure 213). It was colorless and was attached to a plant. It had beating membranelles on the end that moved in a wave like motion. It would also retract  into itself when disturbed, either by other organisms or me tapping on the glass, much like the limnias

Figure 213 p.106 (D.J. Patterson 2003)

- I also noticed there were many more rohefurs swimming around.

Food Pellet (McFarland, 2014) -  "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%.