Microaquarium on November 12, 2010



According to Patterson in his book Vorticella Free-Living Fresh Water Protozoa, this is a Vorticella from the phylum Ciliophora. This protista was attatched to one of the plants, and it was not only a single one of these, but they were in a bundle. They randomly, but quickly, closed. And then once they closed, they slowly opened back up and stood straight up.



We had some trouble deciding what this was because the protista was brown, but in the end we figured it was the top part of a Seed Shrimp. It is also know to be part of the subclass, Ostracoda. They mostly feed on algae, and their life cycle has not been verified. All that is know is that the female seed shrimp produces eggs that are released and there has been some disagreement with  what happens next. Some biologists believe that the sperm are too long to fertilize the egg, therefore seed shrimps must reproduce through parthenogenesis. Parthenogeneis is a type of asexual reproduction that can produce a fertilized egg.



This week my aquarium was filled with many water fleas, and they tended to move rapidly around the aquarium compared to the last stationary water flea that I saw last week. Everytime I moved the microscope around, there was a water flea. There were also some rotifers, but not as many as the first week. I actually did see an increase in Actinosphaerium Sarconids. They were stationary like last week, and protistas were not likely to get close to it, if they did touch it, they would quickly back away. Every week I saw more and more protistas near the plants. Maybe they found it easier to get oxygen near the plant or the fact that there was more food around the plants, such as the algae, could be the explanantion to the multiple gathering of protistas around the plants. Overall, I saw an increase in moving protistas.

Clifford H F. 2010 [cited 2010 Nov 15].Ostrocada (Seed Shrimp). [Internet]. Edmonton, Alberta, Canada: Alberta Conservation Association. Available from: http://sunsite.ualberta.ca/Projects/Aquatic_Invertebrates/index.php?Page=31.

Patterson D. 2003. Vorticella free-living freshwater protozoa a color guide. Washinton DC: Manson Publishing. 223 p

Pennak R W. 1989. Freshwater invertebrates of the United States protozoa to mollusca. New York, NY: Wiley-Interscience Publication. 656 p

Microaquarium



According to Dr. McFarland this is a water flea, at first we thought it was a Daphane, but it ended up being a Cladocera. It constantly kicked its legs, and I could see all its insides. At one point, it pooped. The water flea did not move around that much, like I said before it mostly just kicked its legs.





According to Dr. McFarland this is a Rotifera-Philodina. It moved pretty fast and I found it near the plants that were in my microaquarium.


This week I saw some of the same protista in my aquarium, such as the organisms seen above, in addition I saw a Cyclops and many rotifers that were swimming around. The Cyclops looked like it mostly crawled around, it did not really swim, and I was surprised to see that the Cyclops was not near the plants,but by the lower part of the aquarium where the dirt was. I also kept up with a worm. It swam rather fast, and whenever it ate anything its whole body moved. This worm was wide and when  it was stuck in between the plants, it managed to turn itself around. Also, although the worm was long and wide, everytime something came close to it, it quickly backed away. I also saw a Heliozoan. Which according to the manual on lab table, does not move around and those little hair-spikes that are sticking out, are pseudopods. Also this week I also saw a snail, that is visible to the naked eye inside of my microaquarium. I really do not know how it got there.



Week #3/ Week #1

When I went to see my micro-aquarium this week, I noticed the plants were dry, and that was when I realized that my creation was destroyed. The giant crack in the middle of the micro-aquarium should have given me a hint, but unfortunately it did not. Due to the failure, I had to make a new micro-aquarium and start all over again from week 1. Therefore, the first beta pellet will not be added until some other time.

My new micro-aquarium water source is from the water tank outside of the greenhouse at Hesler Biology Building. The University of Tennessee. Knox Co. Knoxville TN.

This aquarium had a greater amount of movement. There was movement every where, and it was hard to keep up with the small organisms. Some had tails, some pooped, some were spherical, some were rod-shaped, and some were flower-shaped(these rapidly opened and closed with the blink of an eye). Most lived around the dark dirt bottom areas, but there were also many among the middle where the plants were. The ones with tails were mostly seen throughout the entire aquarium.