Week 4

Immediately after looking through the microscope I noticed a large increase in microorganism activity. Most organisms I found were the same. There seemed to be hundreds of Tachysoma moving very quickly around the microorganism. Over 70 were just feeding around the food pellet that was added a week ago, with some other ciliates. As I explored around the whole aquarium I noticed that the amount of Vorticella had increased substantially as well. They seemed to be grouped more in this case, and in all parts of the aquarium as opposed to just attached to one of the plants. There was also a large increase in the number of Mayorella which were all moving slowly and had very odd shapes, as expected. There was also an increase in diatoms, maybe triple the amount there was in week 2. Although being tripled, there were still not as many diatoms as the other organisms, but it was still a noticeable increase. There was a new type of diatom I discovered called a Pinnularia (Patterson figure 6). This organism seemed to glide across the aquarium very slowly. It had a distinguishing characteristic in its siliceous "shell or frustule."This microorganism was found near the bottom of the aquarium and I was able to find 5 or 6 throughout the whole aquarium, but all were in this general area. For the final observation this week I will be searching for new organisms to take note of and possibly get some pictures of the Pinnularia.

Bibliography

Patterson, D.J. 1996. Free Living Freshwater Protozoa: A Color Guide. Manson Publishing NY.

• The Vorticella is found as figure 231
• The Mayorella is found as figure 192
• The Lacrymaria is found as figure 301

Smith, Douglas. 2001. Pennak's Freshwater Invertebrates of the United States. John Wiley and Sons NY.

• Used to identify organisms not shown in pictures.

Week 3: Thursday October 27

Last week some food was added to my micro aquarium after I had experimented it. The details of the food are "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%. Last Thursday I located some organisms that I hadn't seen before. The majority of the microorganisms that I saw were at the bottom right of my micro aquarium. There was a dark greenish blue color to this part of the aquarium and I found out that it was Cyanobacteria.  At first, in this area, I found some stationary diatoms with a gold color and around them I saw some Tachysoma moving at a moderate speed. I would estimate that there were around 50 to 60 Tachysoma spread out just above the surface of the dirt level of my aquarium.
Around the center of the aquarium latched onto one of the plants I found a Vorticella.

 (Patterson figure 231) 

The Vorticella has short cilia coming off of the "mouth" of it. They would move rapidly then stop and be motionless off and on. This was one of the larger Vorticella I had seen when observing my aquarium so I decided it was the best one to take a picture of. The actual microorganism did not move from one area to another, it stayed stationary.

 (Patterson figure 192)

This is a Mayorella I found in between the dirt level of the aquarium and around the middle of the aquarium. It was moving very slowly, slower than any other microorganism I have observed that wasn't motionless. This is the only Mayorella I have been able to find in my aquarium thus far.

 (Patterson figure 301)

This is a Lacrymaria that I found not too far from the Mayorella. As you can see it has cilia all around it and a distinct vacuole at the bottom of it. The top of this organism is stretched out like a neck, that is a common characteristic of the Lacrymaria. At times it would stretch it's neck out, as seen in the picture, and other times it would not be stretched. This organism moved at a moderate speed, not too quick, so it wasn't too difficult to get a picture of it with its "neck" stretched.

This is two pictures of the same Epalxis. The left picture shows the distinct cilia more clearer than the right. The most distinct part of this microorganism that tells us that it is in fact a Epalxis is the cleft seen in the right picture at the bottom of the Epalxis. This organism was moving at a fairly fast speed, so it took many pictures to capture the cleft and the cilia clearly. 

Among the microorganisms pictured, I found several others that I couldn't get great pictures of. Some include a Rotifer (Euchlanis) which seem to be in abundance in my micro aquarium, I found this specific Rotifer making its way along the bottom of my aquarium in the dirt. Another was a possible Colpidium which I lost and wasn't able to get a satisfactory picture of. And finally I located a Bursaria which I also was unable to get a picture of. Next week i'm hoping to get better pictures of these organisms and post them on my blog, I also anticipate seeing new species to identify and report on this blog.