Fourth Observation: 11-12-2010

At the beginning of my last observation I once again replaced the evaporated water with water from a squeeze bottle at the front of the lab. Under the microscope I spotted 20-30 nematodes, about 15 lecane rotifers, and a lot of difflugia. Near the dirt in the bottom of the aquarium I spotted a very small organism that was moving in a sliding motion, back-and-forth, in one area very slowly. I discovered that it was called a Navicula sp. and they live on, but are not attached to a surface area (Canter-Lund and Lund 1995).

Citation:
Canter-Lund Hilda, Lund John W.G. 1995. Freshwater Algae: Their Microscopic World Explored. Bristol (England): Biopress Ltd., p. 130. fig. 237.

Third Observation 11-5-2010

At the beginning of my third observation I replaced the evaporated water with water at the front of the lab. I then went proceeded to use a microscope with a camera to look at my microaquarium. I saw about 10 nematodes and 20 rotifers.  I still have not seen any more vorticella. I then spotted something that resembled a snail with its shell moving very slowly around one of the plants. It is called a Difflugia, it is found either around sand or soil or on the surface of aquatic plants and has finger-like pseudopodia to move around with (Rainis and Russell 1996). I then saw another difflugia who "grabbed" at a rotifer and was moving the rotifer back and forth, shortly the rotifer got away and the dufflugia went about its business. After that I spotted a small organism that was moving very rapidly around the plant, it seemed to have a lot of little appendages around its body and was using them to move. I found out that it is called a Euplote (Patterson 2003). I then spotted several small organisms surrounding some larger organisms and appeared to be eating the larger ones. These were called Coleps and are found in marshes or shallows among submerged debris; they are active scavengers had have been preserved in the fossil record (Rainis and Russell 1996).

Citation:

Patterson D.J. 2003. Free-Living Freshwater Protozoa: A Colour Guide. Washington (DC): ASM Press, p. 124. fig. 260.


Rainis Kenneth G, Russell Bruce J. 1996. Guide to Microlife. Danbury (CT): Franklin Watts, p. 90.


Rainis Kenneth G, Russell Bruce J. 1996. Guide to Microlife. Danbury (CT): Franklin Watts, p. 160.

Second Observation 10-29-2010

For my second observation I started by replacing the evaporated water in the aquarium. Once I placed it under the microscope I looked at the place where the food pellet was resting and noticed 20-30 rotifers feeding on the pellet. I did not see anything new around the plants so I started to look at the soil. I noticed a worm looking creature that was near the soil siphoning/eating and moving in a side-to-side motion. I discovered that they are called nematodes; a threadlike worm that live in any sand, soil, or mud and are also sold by gardening firms to kill anthropod pests and insect larvae (Rainis and Russell 1996). There was also plenty of rotifers near the soil, but these were moving so fast it was hard to get a count of them. However, I did not spot any vorticella during the observation.

Citation:
Rainis Kenneth G, Russell Bruce J. 1996. Guide to Microlife. Danbury (CT): Franklin Watts, p. 230-231.