Week 5

Week 5 marks the last time we are working on our microaquarium projects. It has been a long road with many interesting findings. The aquarium started out slow with few organisms swimming in the water. But over several weeks, with the addition of a food source, the amount of life forms dramatically increased. Several organisms were seen from week to week, such as the insect larva. I followed that larva from week one, and as far as I could tell, the larva grew every week. One organism I have yet to put in my blog is the simple Rotifer. Rotifers were by far the most abundant organism in my aquarium. It was just almost impossible to take a good picture of one because they are so small and very quick swimmers. I did happen to capture a fairly good picture this week during my observation time. Im happy but also sad that the project is coming to an end. It was fun following the different organisms from week to week. Until we meet again. Adios.

Fig. 86 Philodina Rotifer*

*Patterson, D.J. Free-Living Freshwater Protoza. London, UK: Manson, 1996. Print.

Week 4

Week 4 is the second week following the addition of the food pellet. In week 3, there was a huge increase in the amount of life forms in my microaquarium. Week 4 shows a different result. As I had expected the amount of biodiversity found this week was much less than the previous week. This is to be expected, since the food pellet was most likely completely consumed during the first week. During that week, the life forms reproduced many times, leading to the huge increase. This week since the food source was depleted, the amount of life found has decreased. There are still a number of life forms swimming around, more than were found in week 1. The picture below shows an insect larva that Dr. McFarland helped me to identify. There were no books in his possession that clearly identified the type of insect larva, but nonetheless, we did determine it was some type of insect larva.

Insect Larva

Week 3

Week 3 marks the period of explosive biological expansion. The Friday before I did my Week 3 Observations Dr. McFarland placed food pellets inside our microaquariums. The few life forms that world still living in my aquarium obviously ambushed this food pellet. By the next Wednesday, when I made my observations, the amount of life forms had doubled if not tripled. The picture below shows a Coleochaete Scutata which I had not seen in my aquarium in the previous weeks. The amount of diverse life forms has me very excited and I cannot wait to see what the future weeks holds.

Fig. 87 Coleochaete Scutata pg. 90*

*Forest, Herman S. Handbook of Algae. Knoxville: University of Tennessee, 1954. Print.

Week 2 Findings

This week marked the start of our microaquarium observations. Week 1 I set up the microaquarium and look at it under a microscope, but I did not identify anything. This week I went to the lab and studied the microaquarium for several hours. I was given much help from Dr. McFarland in identifying several species of insects, bacteria, etc. After studying the microaquarium for an hour or so, I placed the microaquarium under the camera, so I could identify species more easily.
There were several changes i noticed from week 1. This week there were many more insects and bacteria that I did not see the prior week. I verified several creatures with Dr. McFarland and proceeded to take pictures. The first creature I observed was an amoeba. Dr. McFarland identified it as Difflugia Coronata. I verified this in a freshwater protozoa handbook. Here is the picture I captured of the amoeba.

Fig. 186 Difflugia Sp. pg. 95*

*Patterson, D.J. Free-Living Freshwater Protoza. London, UK: Manson, 1996. Print.

Week 1 Happenings

So this week marks the start of our awesome microaquarium projects. These were fairly simple to set up. I received the actual microaquarium case, stand, and lid. I then color coded mine so it would be easy to find. The class was then shown 13 different water sources. We were to chose one that would serve as the water source for our microaquarium.
I chose water source:
12. Water pool below spring. Fountain City Park west of Broadway at Hotel Ave. Knox Co. Knoxville TN. Full shade exposure Spring Feed Pond N36 02.253 W83 55.986 990 ft 10/10/2010 
I fell the aquarium up to within a quarter inch of the top. The class was then directed to take samples from plant A and plant B and place these on separate sides of the aqarium. I then placed the aquarium under the microscope using the 4x objective.
General observations include several insects/bacteria/protists. I am not sure which I was viewing. But I saw what looked like a tiny caterpillar that was eating one of the plant stems. There was another snail looking creature that had buried himself down into the mud. It looked like a split pea and where it was split at the bottom all its legs and antennae were coming out.
I am looking forward to observing my aquarium next week. I hope the few creatures I observed are still alive.
Till then, Fare thee well.

First Blog

So glad i figured out how to set up this blog!!! I have never done this before so I am very excited! Cannot wait to start blogging about our lab experiments!