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.

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.