Semaine Quartre

I went in for week four this week, i noticed the water was low again, so i figure that this must be because of evaporation instead of someone actually bumping into it. The tank had also grown a lot of algae on this sides of it, which the rhodefords seemed to really enjoy because all of them were seen in this area where it was starting to grow. At first i thought this algae was eggs of some sort but it turned out to be Diatomic algae. it covered the glass of approximately a third on the tank but was not a problem since you could still see through it. There was also some green algae near the bottom that looked filamentous in strand of hairlike interlaces called eladorpha. The Dust Mite was still there and out in the open so i got a couple good pictures of it. I also saw that the nematodes and cyclops (adult) were still in the microaquarium. I also found one of the seed shrimps up higher to the surface than i had ever seen one before. I was actually clanged to the top on the moss. Other than that i also found a interesting new microorganism that was cleaned to the moss by a string. This microorganism was called a vorticella. I could not get any good pictures of it because it was so small and moving extremely fast. So i put up a drawn picture of what it looks like complements of USF. I have had a fun experience with the microaquarium, so much fun i took it home with me from the lab! Since Dr. McFarland was just going to through them out i went and got mine and it is now on my kitchen counter. I might check it again in a little while. Thanks, have a great day!

Semaine Trois

The first thing i noticed when i walked into the room to check my microaquarium was that there was significantly less water in the tank. I don't know if this was because of evaporation or because it may have gotten knocked over. Some of the other classmates had the same problem. I added some more distilled tap water. The tank still had seed shrimps, cyclops, rhodefords, and the long worm looking things. I saw a worm thing which i later identified as a nematode swimming around the same as it did before and then started to follow a passing seed shrimp. I also found some Annelids and a dust mite of which i included two pictures. It was crawling slowly on the moss at the top of the tank. I had to admit i was really sad to have discovered when i looked at the tank under the microscope that with the water gone there was significantly less of every organism in the tank, especially the juvenile cyclops. They were about everywhere in the tank before the water was gone now i could only find one of them. Hopefully this next week will bring back some more organisms out of hiding with the new water i added to the tank.

Semaine Deux

We are now in the second week of observation of the microaquarium. When i first walked in and sat down today i first found a new organism that looked like a octopus with only 3 tentacles. The "tentacles" continuously receded and elongated into the body of the microorganism, seeming as if it may be crawling on them. It did not move very fast at all. I had found a better example out in the open but when i took it to the other microscope to take a picture, it had moved. I did however find another one, but this one was on the side of the microaquarium and didn't pose for a very good picture. The picture of the unknown organism is at the bottom of the page and i will try to do some more research on it next week. Another organism i found for a second, but moved extremely fast and i lost it was a wormed shaped very small organism that wriggled and spasmed around very fast, it looked almost exactly like a stringy earthworm under the telescope. Both the "tenticled" organism and the earthworm shaped organism were viewed under high (400x) power and are extremely hard to find when just looking for them so i don't know if i can ever get a picture of them. Other than these two unidentified organisms i found out that the spider looking organism that was jumping around in the microaquarium was actually just a juvenile cyclops of which the adult version is pictured on the top. I also found out that all of the plastic bag looking things on the bottom of the microaquarium that floated above the debris in the very bottom were actually a whole bunch of seed shrimp carcases that the seed shrimp apparently sheds during the course of its life. This also means, because there were so many that the microquarium contains a large population of seed shrimp. One of the many seed shrimp in the microquarium is pictured in the upper middle on the right of the page. Hopefully i can get a better picture of one of these soon. They are kinda hard to get a picture of out of the debris at the bottom. The organism in pictured in the lower middle of the page that i have seen a couple of times in the microaquarium and believed i have described it as a jellyfish looking thing was actually identified as a Rhodeford but Dr. McFarland. My microaquarium is full of these little critters. Well that is it for this week, see you again next week!