Final Observation: November 12

This is my final post for the term project observation.  The aquarium is clearly growing a more diverse and dynamic community of organisms.  Much like last week, the bottom of the tank is very still and is mainly home to corpses.  The majority of activity is around the plants.  The actinosphaerium, rotifers, and diatoms have all grown and become more motile.  The Nostoc has also multiplied and begun to inhabit other areas of the aquarium.  Below is an image of an organism Coleochaete orbicularis.  I was only able to find one specimen of this particular organism, but it was still enough to provide a clear image.  In using Handbook of Algae by Herman Silva Forest, I was able to identify the algae.

All in all, the aquarium has grown a significant amount and come to form a dynamic environment.  The paramecium, rotifers, diatoms and actinosphaerium became the most motile members of the tank, while the plants provided a plane for them to move. 

Observation: November 10

The paramecium bursaria in the micro aquarium have grown continuously throughout observation. This week was no different.  They have become even larger than the rotifers (daphnia) and seem to be the largest motile organisms in the environment.  Along with the paramecium bursaria, both plants have grown, developing new tissues.  However, with this new growth has come some decline in the life within the aquarium.  In general, it has taken on a less vibrant atmosphere, and many organisms have begun to turn brown; a stillness has occurred in certain areas, namely around the beta food pellet and in the soil.  The plants are beginning to wilt in certain areas, too, but for the most part, they have remained the centers for activity.

A new organism caught my attention during this observation.  I followed it for quite awhile but eventually lost it.  It was brown and reddish in color, and it was very motile.  Unfortunately, I could not identify the organism after losing it in my view, but from its appearance and behavior, I suspect it is a planaria of some sort.  As for the rest of the organisms in my mini environment, they seem to congregate in the middle to upper part of the aquarium.  The bottom portion with the soil seems to be a graveyard for dead rotifers and other organisms.  The actinosphaerium are growing and becoming more active, and the diatoms mentioned last week have grown and become greater in number.

Below are pictures of the actinosphaerium and paramecium bursaria that inhabit my aquarium:

Friday, November 5

At a glance, the aquarium has changed in many ways from my original observations.  New developments include diatoms (pinnularia), pseudopodia (actinosphaerium), and a large amount of new plant tissue.  The actinosphaerium are very slow moving and remain fairly close to the plants.  I identified them using the reference book Free Living Freshwater Protozoa by D.J. Patterson.  They are small and interact with the paramecium bursaria in a repulsive manner.  The paramecium bursaria have grown in number and in size.  Last week they were considerably smaller than the rotifers inhabiting the aquarium; upon this week's observation they equal the rotifers in size and are greater in number.  I have noticed many dead rotifers throughout the aquarium; they tend to grow at a lesser rate than other organisms or do not mature at all.  However, those that have survived remain energetic and motile.
A nonmotile organism that is also newly developed is the Melosira.  I identified the multiple specimens using the reference book Freshwater algae: Their microscopic world exposed by John and Hild Lund.
Below is an image of this organism taken by myself during lab observation.

Observation: October 29

Note: A beta food pellet was added by Dr. McFarland this week.
 'Atison's Beta 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%.


Upon observing my micro-aquarium this week, I noticed a number of motile and non-motile organisms.  Plants A and B tend to remain stationary, while other features move about and around them.  There were  many rotifers moving about in the aquarium; from their shape and size, I have identified them as the microinvertebrate, daphnia. They are mostly at the top, feasting upon the beta food pellet added by Dr. McFarland; I have seen an estimated forty to fifty of them in the microscope. However, they are also moving in and out of the plants, seeming to feed on them as well.  The rotifers are fairly colorless, and they have tail-like flagella trailing behind as they move.  Other organisms I have documented are green colored paramecium.  They congregate around the beta food pellet along with the numerous rotifers.  The last moving organism I could see looked like a planarium.  It was located within the beta food pellet only barely moving.
As for dead organisms, there have been none that I could record.  The organisms seem to avoid the soil at the bottom of the aquarium, and the majority of the "action" is towards the top.

Below are examples of the paramecium bursaria and the daphnia that I have seen in my aquarium.

Citations:

Daphnia:  http://supasi.wordpress.com/daphnia/

Paramecium bursaria: http://www.mdfrc.org.au/bugguide/display.asp?type=2&class=1

Setting up Our Aquarium

We began our term project during lab this week and set up our MicroAquariums.  To begin, we each received the tiny aquarium and chose which water source we will be observing in the coming weeks.  I chose the Holston River, located along John Sevier Hwy under the I-40 bridge with partial shade exposure; to put the water in my aquarium, I used a bulb pipet to extract samples from three different layers in the bowl.  We then put two different plants in the aquariums and observed them under a microscope. Upon my first look into the water, I could see the two plants that I placed in the aquarium, along with several unidentified moving organisms.  They seemed to have mobility that was not only caused by the water in the aquarium, but by their own movements.