Week 2: Thursday October 20

Last Thursday I began a deeper exploration of different creatures in my microaquarium. By using a yellow pamphlet that labeled some commonly found specimens and A Guide to Microlife by Kenneth Rainis and Bruce Russell, I was able to get a rough idea of what exactly I was looking at. The majority of the specimens that I found were either around plants A and B, or near the surface or bottom of the aquarium. I noticed there were clear branching forms coming off of both plant A and B, possibly a type of algae. Near the surface of the aquarium at the end of plant B I was able to find a relatively large multicellular microorganism with hundreds of tiny moving cells inside of it. On plant B, near the middle of the aquarium though, I found a lone peritrich ciliate, or Vorticella, roughly 30 micrometers in length. By consulting A Guide to Microlife I found that its class is Peritrichia and it's genus is Epistylis. Near the bottom, dirt covered part of the aquarium I found a paramecium roughly 15 micrometers wide and 30 micrometers long. There was also something near the bottom of the aquarium that appeared to be a Heliozoan. It had straight hair like structures coming off of it, making it appear like it was radiating like the sun or something. Next week I plan to get pictures of some of these specimens and explain them more and detail.

Bibliography

Rainis, Kenneth G., and Bruce J. Russell. A Guide to Microlife. New York: Franklin Watts, 1996. Print.

Week 1: Preparing the Micro aquarium

Wednesday in Botany we created our MicroAquarium. I filled mine with water from the water pool below a spring at Lynnhurst Cemetery off of Adair Drive. Knox Co. Knoxville TN. Partial shade exposure Spring Feed Pond N36 01.357 W83 55.731 958 ft which was collected on 10/9/2011. I also added two plants, A and B by pushing them in the aquarium with a needle. I have already found both stationary and moving organisms. The moving organisms are very quick and very small while the majority of the stationary organisms are large and move slowly. One of the stationary organisms looked like a long moving hair or tentacle and the other was large and oval shaped and had hair like spikes coming off of it. Most of these were located around the mud if not in the mud. In the upcoming weeks I will examine these organisms more closely.