Day # 10 of Life in a Micro-Aquarium

On Friday October 22, 2010 I observed my micro-aqaurium after 10 days of life. I was surprised to see more movement in my micro-aquarium. It might have been that I actually figured out how to use a microscope, but that is a different story. Most of the organisms were living around the plants, much like last week. This week, I managed to see circular things that move really fast(and are difficult to keep up with if you are trying to maneuver a microscope) without moving in any specific pattern. I also saw many Actinosphaerium Sarconids. Although this giant word sounds difficult to picture, the Sarconid is spherical with small hair-like spikes sticking out. I believe I also saw some blue-green algae(cyanobacteria) again mostly around the plants. They look like small squares divides into four smaller squares. The only movement I actually saw was of an organism( I think) that looked like a bumble bee but without the wings. It moved rather fast, and it looked like it kissed the smaller particles that were around it(Probably the cutest thing in my micro-aquarium). Although I think I saw it eat one of those small particles. Also, there were these small pellet looking bacteria(?). They were only visible when the strongest magnification was set, and even then they were hard to see. They were small, but they were probably the fastest things in my aquarium.

Set-up of Micro-Aquarium

Two pieces of rectangular-shaped glass were sealed together leaving space for the water that was to be added with a pipet. The water for my micro-aquarium came from the French Broad River. I gathered a small amount of dirt and water from the bottom of the dish of our water sample, and filled it until the aquarium was one-third full. I added a small amount of dirt so the organisms in the water would not hide in the shadows of the dirt. After this, I filled the aquarium to the two-thirds line with water from the middle layer of the dish. The last few drops of water that were added came from the top layer of the dish water sample. We then added samples of plant A and plant B so the organisms would be able to get a source of oxygen.

Plant A:  Fontinalis sp. Moss. Collection from: Natural spring. at Carters Mill Park, Carter Mill Road, Knox Co. TN. Partial shade exposure. N36 01.168 W83 42.832. 10/10/2010

Plant B: Utricularia gibba L. Flowering plant. A carnivous plant. Original material from south shore of Spain Lake (N 35o55 12.35" W088o20' 47.00), Camp Bella Air Rd. East of Sparta Tn. in White Co. and grown in water tanks outside of greenhouse at Hesler Biology Building. The University of Tennessee. Knox Co. Knoxville TN

2. French Broad River, Seven Islands Wildlife Refuge

French Broad River, Seven Islands Wildlife Refuge, Kelly Lane , Knox Co. Tennessee. Partial shade exposure French Broad River Water Shed N35 56.742 W83 41.628 841 ft 10/10/2010

 

 

Mostly all the organisms in my aquarium were stationary. Those that were stationary were small. The few that

were moving had little hairs around the edges and they moved in a frisbee circular pathway. Around one of the plants there was a large ovular green organism that moved very slowly around the plant's leaves. I believe I saw the giant green ovular organism go over another moving organism and then the other organism never came out from under the ovular organism.  From what I saw, the organisms in my micro-aquarium like to be around the plants.

 

All  infromation was gathered from Ken McFarland and was posted on http://botany1112010.blogspot.com/