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.