Wednesday, November 5

VISIBLE CHANGES
When I picked up my MicroAquarium I realized that I hadn't replenished the water supply in a while so that was the first change I noticed. The air bubbles are getting smaller, but they are still multiplying. Both plants are almost entirely covered in brown fuzz (that I assume is algae) so the color has dulled from dark green and bright green to a mucky puke color. The seeds I saw 2 weeks have turned into leaves on the bright green plant. The dark green plant has curly hair-like fibers that are about an inch long.









MICROSCOPIC CHANGES

1. Attached to and surrounding the plants are many large colonies of non-motile green algae. When I looked at the Pond III Photosynthetic Microlife poster, I found that the colonies are called gonium. Without counting them all there were at least 300 per colony and at least 100 colonies. The individual organisms within the colonies are round with brown and green insides. These unicellular and colonial organisms come in a large variety of color.
2. There was 1 sighting near the dark green plant of a Euplotes (Pond I Microlife poster), which is a protozoa with cilia in the phylum Ciliophora. This Euplotes was non-motile but I could definitely see it's little cilia moving very quickly. It almost looked like a microscopic tick, although it was clear with green organisms.
3. I had many sightings of Rotifer swimming around the plants trying to eat diatoms and plant material. The coolest part about the Rotifers are the quick, jerky movements, and when they are done eating they spring away from the food.
4. I saw about 10 little organisms that were moving too quickly for Dr. McFarland to identify for me, but I'm pretty sure they were Blephorisma (Ciliates, Ward's Visual Guide to Freshwater Protists poster). They had tiny cilia that made it move very fast in short jerks that almost made it look smooth. It only stopped moving for a split second when it needed to eat. It didn't even stop when it barreled into my Euplotes.
5. There are many species of cyanobacteria hanging around in the tank's middle. One of the species is Nostoc (Pond III Photosynthetic Microlife poster), which lives near the fibers of the dark green plant in little clumps that spiral around itself. Another species is Anabaena ( Pond III Photosynthetic Microlife poster), which hangs in straight lines. All of the Anabaena are completely green in color.
6. Around the bottom only are tons of brown diatoms. Cymbella (Pond III Photosynthetic Microlife poster) are the most prevalent. There were about 500 of them clumped together but none of them were touching.
7. In the dirt at the bottom of the MicroAquarium were many green algae (mostly filamentous Spirogyra and Oedogonium according to the Pond III Photosynthetic Microlife poster). They move kind of like an inch worm.
8. At the top I could only find cyanobacteria and green algae.
   
9. I couldn't find any of the the Carpenter's Rulers at the bottom so they are either dead or hiding.

I talked to Dr. McFarland to get help naming the colonies from 2 weeks ago. I thought the colonies were Volvox, but he told me they were actually Pandorina because Volvox only live in sewers and this water came from a pond. Then, I looked at the Pond III Photosynthetic Microlife poster and found that the sting ray looking organisms are called Rotifer.