Observing my MicroAquariumTM (11/05/2013)

I observed my MicroAquarium on the 5th of November, 2013.  The first observation was that the food pellet mentioned in my last post was no longer there. I think it had dissolved, and was perhaps consumed by microorganisms. However, the many observations I made under the microscope that Tuesday where particularly interesting.

There was several changes in my MicroAquarium. First, an organism that had been hiding at the soil level had finally emerged, which allowed me to identify it.

This is an image of a Surirella sp. (Canter-Lund and Lund 1995, Fig. 224)

 

Also, there were some newly observed organisms.

This is an image of an Amoeba sp. (Patterson 2003, Fig. 195)

This is an image of an Anabaena sp. (Canter-Lund and Lund 1995, Fig. 401)

 

 

This is an image of a Dicranophorus sp. (id)

This is an image of the diatom Pleurotaenium sp. (Forest 1954, Fig. 335)

This is an image of a Scenedesmus sp. (Forest 1954, Fig. 183)

A very exciting observation I made was with another newly observed species.

                                         
    The images above show the Lacrymaria sp. with its 'neck' extended (left) and contracted (right).
                                                                    (Patterson 2003, Fig. 301)


As shown above, it can extend and constrict its 'neck', with its 'mouth' at the end eating. When it moved, its extended neck seemed to pull the rest of its body behind.

I had made more observation on November 5th. Two previously observed organisms (one of which I could not identify before) had grown larger. First, there is the (presumably) lone Cyclops.

A photograph I was finally able to take after searching for the Eucyclops sp. for what felt like an hour (Thorp and Covich 2010, fig. 21.1 F).

 

 

Then there is the Dicranophorus sp., an organism that was perhaps a two-thirds the size displayed above when I first saw it (Plewka 2006).

Now for my most exhilarating observation, an organism I was quite familiar (and is now numerous in my MicroAquarium) was caught by what resembled a predacious fungus we learned about in lab.

 I thought the Aelosoma sp. would not escape, however it manage to wriggle its was out of the fungus's clutch (Pennak 1953, Fig. 175).

 

 

Another organism I identified but did not capture an image of was a Spirogyra sp. (Canter-Lund and Lund 1995, Fig. 82).

 

Bibliography:

 

Canter-Lund H and Lund JWG. 1995. Freshwater Algae. 1st ed. Bristol (England): Biopress Ltd. 360p.

 

Forest HS. 1954. Handbook of Algae. 1st ed. Knoxville (TN): The University of Tennessee Press. 467p.

 

Patterson DJ. 2003. Free-Living Freshwater Protozoa. 1st ed. Washington DC: ASM Press. 223p.

 

Pennak RW. 1953. Freshwater Invertebrates of the United States. 1st ed. New York (NY): The Ronald Press Company. 769p.

Plewka M. 2006.Wolf-Rädertier (Dicranophorus forcipatus) [internet]. Stefansbachtal Gevelsberg, Grünes Klassenzimmer,Teich: Plingfactory;[9th April 2006; 11th Nov. 2013]. Available from: http://www.plingfactory.de/Science/Atlas/KennkartenTiere/Rotifers/source/Dicranophorus%20forcipatus.html

Thorp JH, Covich AP, editors. 2010. Ecology and Classification of North American Freshwater Invertebrates. 3rd ed. San Diego (CA): Academic Press. 1021p.