Wednesday, October 29

Since last week, Dr. McFarland has fed my MicroAquarium and boy did it make a difference! I could see a ton of changes without a microscope. There were more/bigger air bubbles around the plants, the plants are becoming more brown with some sort of growth, and the seeds have shrunk a bit on the bright green plant. I was amazed at how much my micro-organisms have changed, too.

TOP

1. There is much more debris than last week. Most of it looks like algae and carcasses.
2. There isn't much of a variety of organisms, but nonetheless there are many diatoms and clear stingray looking organisms.
3. The diatoms, which Dr. McFarland told me are single-celled organisms that have shells made of cilla (I think that's the word he used), are in large clumps and are not active. No fear though! They are still alive.

MIDDLE

1. Mostly in the middle I saw my Pleurosigma elongatum. There were about 50 of them and they were much more active. I saw a lot eating something off the bright green plant, and about 10 were swimming around a group of reproducing diatoms.
2. I'm kind of sad that there isn't any activity around my dark green plant. I see a few small organisms but nothing of great significance.

BOTTOM

1. My carpenter's ruler has expanded and stayed in the dirt the whole time I was observing.
2. Other than that there was no change at the bottom of the MicroAquarium.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Day 9
When I observed my MicroAquarium for the second time, there were quite a few differences visible with the naked eye. I noticed that air bubbles and brown growth (that I assume is some sort of algae) had formed on the inside of the glass. The plants I added to the water had also begun to sprout seeds. With further observation of these seeds under the microscope I could see that there were tiny root fibers attached to them.
I looked at my MicroAquarium under the microscope on 10X objective for about an hour and found some interesting inhabitants.

1. There was an unidentifiable creature that looked like a clear, blobby sting ray. It stay mostly in the middle of the tank around the bright green plant. I saw quite a few of them swimming around in a spiral motion.
   
2. The coolest creature I found in the middle and top of the tank around the bright green plant was a Pleurosigma elongatum (Diatoms of North America. William C. Vinyard. Image 138). It looked like a long, pointy worm with orange insides. There were at least 50 sightings. The movement was a sort of pivot on one of the ends.
3. There was only 1 Euplotes in the tank, and it resided in the middle of the tank. This organism looked like a clear amoeba with colored insides. There were definitely flagella that helped it move in a jerky fashion around an algae-like smudge (green) on the glass. It seemed fairly content just eating away at the algae.
4. In the middle and bottom of the tank were a few Colpidium colpoda (Ciliated Protozoa. Harmut Bick. page 81). This one would touch a plant then spring away very quickly. I could not tell if it was eating or not, but it would definitely touch the plant. The cool thing about this organism was the head-like bulge at one end. It also had flagella that helped it move around. The body was clear and it had black insides.
5. A crescent moon shaped, stationary Closterium (Pond III Photosynthetic Microlife poster in room 118) was near the bottom of the tank. I only saw a handfull of these, but there were a few distinct characteristics. The body was a light green with darker green spots in a line along the middle. It did not move like the rest of the organisms I saw, which may mean it was a carcass.
   
6. My absolute favorite organisms in the entire tank were the Carpenter's Rulers or Nitzschia paradoxa (Diatoms of North America. William C. Vinyard. page 111 image 143). Dr. McFarland told me that they are a bunch of single-celled diatoms that are held together by a phenomenal bond that scientists still do not understand. Somehow they multipy to mend themselves when necessary. The movement was definitely distinct because it was like a spiral. The end would curl up towards the microscope then slap down and move forward. It only resides in the bottom of the tank feeding on carcasses and dirt. I tried to Google a video of the movement, but was unsuccessful.
   
7. At the top of the tank were quite a few carcasses, but not many organisms. There were a few colonies of round organisms with green spots on the inside.
   
8. The bottom of the tank held mostly large micro-organisms and their carcasses. There were also a lot of cyanobacteria called Lingbia. These are long and rectangular with blue-green partitions.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Day 1 of my MicroAquarium
I added water from Tank 5 and I added plants A and B
I saw quite a few worms and a few long, orange diatoms, but that was about it
I was able to see everything from the 10X Power on the microscope
There was little difference in the organisms on the top, middle, and bottom of the Aquarium