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.