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!
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