Week 2 Observation of the Microaquarium

In week two of my observation, I noticed that there was a significant increase in the number of Colpidums, mostly around the moss in the tank. They were swimming wildly and in a random motion. There were also many more Chilonomas than before and some were much larger than others and were mostly around the moss. The moss seems to have shrunk over the past two weeks, probably due to the organisms feeding off of it. In addition, there was a long, thin, green string with many segments,near the top of the water. I later identified this, with the help of the diagrams on the walls in the lab, as photosynthetic cyanobacteria. Also at the top of the water, there were many wide Philodina(pg 194 Guide to Microlife by Kenneth G. Rainis and Bruce J. Russell) and large orange archellas. The archellas(pg 91 Figure 173 Free Living Freshwater Protozoa-A Colour Guide by D.J. Patterson and Drawings by Stuart Hedley) have tiny arm-like things that extend from their bodies and draw things back into themselves. There were also many cyanobacteria cells all around the archellas near the top of the water. Furthermore, the brown tip of the moss visibly slightly shakes from all the activity of the Colpidiums moving in and around it. There were also an innumerable amount of Phacus and Euglena(pg 146 Guide to Microlife by Kenneth G. Rainis and Bruce J. Russell) in the middle and top portion of the tank. The only dead organism I saw in the tank was one dead Annelid in the bottom of the tank. Most of the activity occured in the middle or top of the tank and not much was going on the middle of the tank. For the most part, there was a significant increase in Colpidiums and Chilomonas and an increase in cyanobacteria and not much else. Everything else in the tank, such as the moss, flowering plant, and the Annelids declined in number this week.

Week 1 MicroAquarium Observation

I set up my MicroAquarium by putting pond water from three different levels of bowl 1, which came from Tommy Schumpert Pond, Seven Islands Wildlife Refuge in Knox County, Tennessee, into the Aquarium, by putting plant A (Amblystegium varium, which is moss that was colleced from a natural spring in Fountain City Park in Knox County, TN) and by putting plant B (Utricularia vulgaris, which is flowerng plant and came from the Greenhouse in the White Avenue Biology Annex, at UTK). Shortly after, I put the aquarium underneath the microscope and noticed almost immediately that a multicellular nemotode was moving around wildly and when I observed the aquarium this week, I noticed that it was moving a little slower and that it liked to settle in the moss. Also, I saw what I thought was a worm but it turned out to be an Annelid and it was moving very randomly and very fast. This week, I noticed that it liked to stay either towards the sides or in the middle of the moss and didn't like the light very much. There was also a ton of single celled bacteria randomly moving around and this week I noticed that there were a lot more bacteria than last week and they were still randomly moving. The only thing that seemed truly stationary was the moss and flowering plant. That proved true again in this week's observation. There was one major change in the aquarium this week and that was there were way more bacteria and ciliates in there than there had been previously. There were also about 2 water mites that resembled tiny little spiders and there were many Chilomonas (small organisms with tails) and little black dots called Colpidum. There was also Epistylis (which resemble buttercups almost) and the Chilomonas would eat little bits of moss. The only thing that seemed to contan chlorophyll were the plants. There were also many more single celled oraganisms than multicellular ones. I did not noticed any dead organisms in the bottom of the tank this week, but there were many more organisms in the tank than before and most organisms seem to prefer the middle to the top or bottom of the tank.

Setting up and First Observations of the MicroAquarium

I started setting up my term project of a MicroAquarium with pond water from bowl 1. I then added green plants and moss to the micro ecosystem. I observed many nemotodes moving about in the aquarium and I also observed a small worm that I have nicknamed Squishy swimming frantically around the aquarium. There were many single celled bacteria in the aquarium that were in constant random motion. In addition, there was also a nemotode that was either interacting with the environment or it was just trying to get through the debris in the aquarium. There were stationary plants and moss in the middle of the aquarium and they are photosynthetic unlike the other organisms in the environment. Most of the organisms showed a preference towards the bottom except for Squishy who just moves everywhere and the plants who stayed in the middle of the aquarium. This is what I observed initially in my MicroAquarium.