Thursday, November 11, 2010

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.

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