Decomposition...hmmm...

Well this is day 36 at 6:00pm. Well the very first thing I noticed this week compared to my previous observations was a large decrease in the water level of my aquarium. Water had dropped nearly an inch and this was the first time I had noticed such a large water loss. The second thing that I observed was a lot of decomposition going on throughout my aquarium. I spotted a dead midge with a large number of paramecium swarming arround it possibly feeding off of any bacteria that may be growing on it, as well as a dead cyclops. There is also less and less debree at the bottom of the aquarium as time goes on. I only assume that this debree is a feeding source for the many organisms in the habitat. There has been, over time, a large increase in the nuber of those organisms that are microscopic, while the number of organisms that can be seen by the naked eye have remained or decreased from a few to just one or maybe two. The fungus in the aquarium is growing steadily and taking up more and more room in the aquarium, but the organisms seem to have no problem with it! Maybe there is some symbiosis going on within this little aquarium!?

Although this post has been less exciting as the rest, never fear!!! We did discover a new little organism that is pretty freaking neat! The Professor, Mr. Henry Baldwin Ward, and the Late George Chandler Whipple helped me spot a STENTOR! Now if that isn't a cool name (like cyclops), then I don't know what is! Now...when you hear stentor, what do you think of? Well, I'll be the first to say I didn't think of a funnel looking thing! ;) But alas, it is! It looks like the end of a trumpet and has cilia all around its mouth sucking in water and organisms alike looking for food. It is actually a really neat little guy. When you tap on the glass hard enough it SHRINKS really fast into a little ball....I guess you could say it's a defense mechanism like that of a turtle. Pretty nifty! ;)We found this little guy in "Fresh Water Biology" on page 285 if you want to look him up!

Well....that's going to do it for me until the term project! Hope you enjoyed my journey in learning about microorganisms and their habitation!

OOoo! Lots of new little organisms!

Alrighty then...Thursday November 6th, around 6:30 pm...that makes this observation day 23! Well...yet again my aquarium is seemingly more "dirty" as time goes. Is it lack of fresh oxygen...hmmm? I don't know; however, it does appear to have grown mycellium all over. When observing the aquarium it seems to have small thread-like, free-living structures all throughout. I also spotted what looked like some algae and even colonies of bacteria possibly! Looks like we are learning by sight, huh?! Of course I saw my cyclops which I think I may name...How about Scorp since he looks like a scorpion kind of! ;) I have noticed that I do have a few cyclops now, maybe 3 or more! They still differ in size, one big enough to see without the microscope.

Now for the new organisms!! I spotted some ameoba, which looked like a clear blob with alot of black dots inside of it...and I learned that those black dots were actually harmful to the little guy and the more infested it is, the closer it is to being eat up and dying. Sad but true. I identified the plasmodium witht the "Free Living Fresh Water Protozoa" book by D.J. Patterson. I also identified a similar organism called an arcella. It is just like an ameoba with a large, brown, circular shell on top of it. There were about three or more of them just sitting around. One was fairly motile and looked different than the one that the shell had come off of. The motile one had black dots around the edge of the shell, where the detached shell was all brown without the black spots. It makes me wonder do the spots have something to do with the attatchment of the organism underneath it?! Hmm...something to think about!

Also...the ugly hairy thing that I mentioned before as a rotifer is actually not a rotifer!!!! I have to retract my whole blog then huh?! What it actually is, is an ostracod...or known as a seed shrimp! Very strange! It is hairy and tear drop shaped, with tentacles or whiskers that come out of the smaller end of the tear drop! It zooms around looking for food and is sometimes hard to keep up with! We found what this was from the "Guide to Microlife" book!

In the bottom of my "crud" in my microaquarium there was what looked like a worm constantly moving and it seemed to be eating...wanna guess what it was?? It was a midge, or a larvae sack! This is the second one I've had in my aquarium and it fooled me twice! Shame on me!!! We identified this from the Pond 2 Larger Microlife poster in the biology annex.

Last but not least we also found a gastrotich, which is a worm like organism with two back curved prongs, and also a paramecium! The paramecium had cilia all around it just moving along and it was getting along just fine!!

Well that's all the time I have today, but tune in next time for the final blog...it'll be wonderful!! ;)

Ewe...Rotifer

Well, this would be day 18 (10/31/08) at 4:00 pm. My mycroaquarium is getting darker looking and you can definately tell it's inhabited. There are a few more organisms moving around in it and still some are visible such as the cyclops. I spotted 3 cyclopses and some are larger than others and some move faster than others! I still have unidentified objects in my microaquarium; however, I will keep you updated as I plan to find out on my next visit just exactly what they are! One is a rod shpaed, worm-like, red organism that moves foward and just seems to slide around like a worm! It also backs up alot! It's quite entertaining because it appears to not know where it wants to go!!

Now, my microaquarium as I mentioned seems to be getting dirtier or grungier! Kind of like the stadium after a football game! ;) But I noticed what appeared to be bactieria in colonies of cocci and bacilli.

On to the important, creepy-crawly part of this blog! I spotted what I think is a shelled rotifer...I will let you know for sure next blog, but I do believe it is a shelled rotifer. It is teardrop shaped, and out of the top side of the "tear drop" there are a few antenna-LIKE "things." It's quite ugly actually! I found it sort of disturbing like a cockroach! It was moving very fast and searching for food as if it weren't big enough...It left the other organisms alone and munched on the plants provided! It was definately a fast mover and pretty hungry! It was also kind of gross! lol ;)

Alrighty, until next time...chew on this and I'll be back!