Time for a Census

This week, as a observed the aquarium, I noticed that the soil and water levels had continued to decrease.  I added more added more distilled water to compensate.  Also this week, I decided to count some of the organisms that I have already identified.  I could have very well missed a few, but I counted 5 nauplii, 6 annelids, 8 nematodes, and 3 cyclopes.  I was somewhat surprised by the numerical count of the various organisms in the aquarium.  But, it is considered it to be an empire, so I shouldn't be too surprised by its population.  There are also an extensive amount of various paramecium.  I also identified a species of rotifer.  I have been seeing this organism making its way around town frequently in the past, and I finally resolved to identify it.  It is a Lepadella ovalis (Donner 18).  It is a oval shaped organism with a whip-like, pointed tail structure with two eyes.


Reference for Identification:
Donner, Josef. Rotifers. London: Fredrick Warn & Co. Ltd., 1968. 18.

In the Soil

This week, there was a great decrease in the water level within the aquarium.  Distilled water was added to make up the difference.  Upon first looking in the aquarium, I didn't notice much vivacity.  I did observe a noticeable decrease in the amount of soil at the bottom of the MicroAquarium.  This is where I found most of the live organisms.  My hypothesis for the reason why most of them were congregated at the bottom on the soil is because they were feeding from the nutrients.  The decrease amount of soil made it easier for me to see the organisms that migrated to the bottom.  I saw four nematodes, one of which was dancing violently.  I also saw 2 more nauplii and various species of paramecium.  One in particular that I noticed a great deal of was Paramecium bursaria (Patterson 143).  I first thought that it was some kind of colonial green algae, but found it to be something very different upon research.  It seems to me that the aquatic empire might be dwindling and fighting for a robust and thriving existence.  This could be because of the evaporation of water, diminishing food supply (or at least not quite as copious as it once was), or the fact that this water sample was taken from the polluted water from the Tennessee River right near a sewer plant.

Reference for Identification:
Patterson, D.J. "Free-Living Freshwater Protozoa." New York: Manson Publishing, 1998. 143. 

Growth of a Kingdom

This week Beta Food Pellets were added to the MicroAquariums.  "Atison's Betta Food" made by Ocean Nutrition, Aqua Pet Americas, 3528 West 500 South, Salt Lake City, UT 84104. Ingredients: Fish meal, wheat flower, soy meal, krill meal, minerals, vitamins and preservatives. Analysis: Crude Protein 36%; Crude fat 4.5%; Crude Fiber 3.5%; Moisture 8% and Ash 15%. (McFarland).  This addition instigated quite a bit of growth within the aquatic empire.  My initial observation of the MicroAquarium was the noticeable decrease in water level.  This could be a result of evaporation or absorption by the pellets.  The next change I noted in the state of the aquarium was the growth of a green algae or fungal growth composed of moving filaments.  It seems like life within the empire has grown exponentially.  I observed a significant increase in the number of protozoa.   

 

This protozoa is called Actinophaerium (Patterson 169).  I observed at least two of them in my aquarium.  

This is a sampling of the other types of protozoa I found swimming around the empire.  This one here, a species of Paramecium (Patterson 153), is swimming amongst the filaments of the new algae growth.

I also found a very matured cyclops (Covich and Thorp 789) darting around in the algae.  It reminds me of a shrimp-like creature.  The two nodes attached to the bottom of the cyclops are pouches containing developing larvae.  After desperately trying to track this little guy down, I managed to capture this picture.

I also managed to find and identify the subsequent form of this larvae called nauplii (Covich and Thorp 789).  I am certain that there are more than one of these guys in the aquarium, but they are so fast I only saw/took a picture of this one. 

I found Randall once again, but she was not difficult to spot at all.  She has grown so big!  Hanging out in the algae again, I don't think she ever stops eating.  This is just a head shot, but it appears hat she has grown in length by at least 25%. 

In addition to these new creatures, I observed a noticeable growth in number of nematodes within the aquarium.

References for Identification:

Covich, Allan and James Thorp.  Ecology and Classification of North American Freshwater Invertebrates. San Diego: Academic Press, 1991. 789.

Patterson, D.J. Free Living Freshwater Protozoa.  Washington, D.C.: Manson Publishing Ltd., 1996. 153, 169.

Observation #1

Compared to my initial observations of the MicroAquarium, I have noticed a significant growth in the amount of life within the developing empire.  The first noticeable change that caught my attention was the amount of air bubbles that had formed within the aquarium.  I attribute this occurrence to the increase of respiration of the growing organisms.

The the most exciting observation I made was the discovery of a nematode and an annelid.  I don't know what else I was expecting, but I was shocked to see them.  The annelid was the most interesting to watch.  She would wriggle around eating everything within her path.  She ripped away pieces of algae with surprising force.  I followed her as she swam down to the soil and devour its nutrients.  I also saw her poop which was funny, as poop always is...unless it's in your hair...which is still funny for other people.  Due to her transparent "skin" for lack of a better word, I could even see her digest the food she had been in-taking.  This is a species of the annelid species chaetogaster (Rainis and Russel 226) or Randall as I have taken to calling her:

    I also found a soil nematode (Rainis and Russel 233) slithering around some algae.  He didn't do much except move around slowly, but was a pretty interesting-looking organism nonetheless.  He had a pointed, transparent head and a body with a transparent coating encasing it.  This is a taster of the nematodes photo shoot:

Overall, a very successful observation session.

Reference for identification:
Rainis, Kenneth and Bruce Russel. Guide to Microlife. Danbury: Grolier Publishing, 1996. Print.

Est. 2010

On Wednesday during lab, we set up our MicroAquariums.  I was surprised to see how small the aquariums were... for some reason I was expecting them to be much bigger.  I chose to use a water sample from the Tennessee River at the boat ramp across from the Knoxville sewer plant.  This body of water receives full sun exposure and is a product of the convergence of the Holston and French Broad Rivers (McFarland).  Because of its proximity to the sewer plant, I thought that this water source would be particularly interesting to study.  I also run quite frequently alongside this river and I think it would be cool to know what kind of aquatic empire I pass by while doing so.

N35 56.722 W83 55.587 813 ft (McFarland)

 

After color coding by aquarium, I used a dropper to extract water from the bottom, middle, and top of the sample tank of the Tennessee River.  I filled the newly established aquatic empire about 4/5 of the way full and added some algae and another green, water plant.  

 

Upon first setting up my aquarium, I didn't think that there would be much to see when I put it under the microscope.  However, it only took one hot minute for me to see signs of thriving life within the tank.  The first moving organism I observed was a long, thread-like structure elongating itself and then slowly recoiling once more.  I watched the creature doing this several times.  I also noticed two amoeba-looking blobs moving around each other near the nodes of one of the plants.  Right next to these anonymous blobs, I found another interesting creature.  I don't know what is was, but it was an oval shaped organism which appeared to have an exoskeleton and a tail for locomotion.   

 

Though seemingly small as of now, the life within this tank will surely grow into its own dynamic biosphere, and it's organism will form their own aquatic empire.