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.
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