Last Look

I had my last observations this Friday.  The thing that surprised me most was the amount of cyanobacteria that had grown throughout my MicroAquarium.  I had noted the increase in cyanobacteria each week, but this time it had grown completely through my aquarium.  It was everywhere I looked.  Also I forgot to add last week that I noticed the food pellet had become separated from the water sample by an air bubble.  I did not expect this to affect the MicroAquarium much, but this week I did notice a lot of dead paramecium and not as much life.  I identified a bunch of the algae I had been seeing throughout the weeks as diatoms.  As usual paramecium bursaria we're floating around everywhere.  I saw some flatworms and a rotifer swimming around as well.  I searched around for the vorticella I had seen the past week but to no avail.  I saw a lonely gastrotrich roaming around instead.  I followed him around for a while, before looking at an interesting stenostomum flatworm foraging around the Utrichularia gibba for something to ingest.  That's about it for my last observations. I had a good time studying the happenings of the MicroAquarium throughout the the weeks, and I'm a bit sad that it's over. Thanks for reading!

More Explorations

   So I had to go to the lab on my birthday today, but it was still fun because my MicroAquarium gifted me with some new organisms to look at.  I saw a new amoeba today that had a single flagella and another amoeba with a flagella coming out each end.  I identified the first amoeba as Paranema.  Then while I was observing another amoeba, a Rotifer decided to pass by and devour it.  I also saw some flatworms or Stenostomum swimming around.  I saw a bunch of Paramecium bursaria as usual.  I saw a lot more cyanobacteria than I have seen in my last labs.  And then I was scanning the stem of a Plant B, I saw something very interesting.  Inside one of the bladders of Plant B, Utrichularia gibba, I noticed what looked like hundreds of paramecium squirming around.  I studied them for a while then followed a passing flatworm.  I was also able to get a couple good photo's during this lab.  All in all it was a successful lab. Thank you for reading.

Third Blog Post

  This was the first time that I was able to observe my MicroAquarium with the food pellet added.  The activity surrounding the new food source was spectacular. It made the rest of the aquarium seem deserted in comparison.  The most common organism I observed crowded around the food pellet was the paramecium bursaria.  There were at least 70 that I spotted around the food pellet.  As I was searching around the rest of the MicroAquarium I was able to add two new organisms to the list of microorganisms I've been able to identify.  I saw a few vorticella hanging off one of the plants I put in the MicroAquarium the first day.  I also saw a couple Paranema flagellates swimming around,too.  It was a pretty neat day in lab today, and I'm glad I got to see the phenomenon the food pellet created.  The activity around the pellet was great.  I saw some flatworms swimming around there, some large translucent paramecium among the paramecium bursaria, and some gastrotrichs floating across the scene as well.  I hope to keep spotting new organisms next week as well. Till then, thanks for reading.

First Real Observations

   Last week I detailed the set-up and quick observations I made that first day.  For this post I am going to explain my journey into the world of microorganisms and my identification of organisms I did see.  I was completely surprised by the diversity I could witness in such a small sample of water.  Maybe my assumption of the diversity in the French Broad River was right.  When I initially saw all the organisms, I was excited to follow all of the organisms, and scared as to how I would identify them all. However, it became easier to identify each organism the longer I observed them.  The organism I witnessed the most was gastrotrichs which swam across the lens wherever I was observing.  Some interesting organisms that I witnessed were a flatworm down by the dirt, a rotifer spinning around by a plant, and some Eudorina sitting in the water.  Mr. McFarland helped me specify the rotifer as a Philodina rotifer.  The green algae known as Eudorina was interesting because of its circular/spherical formation.  There were two more organisms of interest I found.  As I was studying one of the plants I saw a clump of green that looked like Medusa's head with thin green limbs swirling around from the center of the clump.  On a closer observation it was actually many cynobacteria branching from a central location.  I was then able to identify the cynobacteria as oscillatoria, and while I was observing the oscillatoria I noticed a green organism float by.  I was able to identify it as paramecium bursaria because of its green circles enclosed within the cell membrane.  Upon further investigation I found out that the reason paramecium bursaria is green is because of the zoochlorella that lives inside of it.  It was a very interesting and productive day in the lab.  I enjoyed the MicroAquarium and am looking forward to next week.

Initial Set-up and Observations

       This is my first blog post and I will be describing what I did to set up the MicroAquarium and what I observed on our first day of the MicroAquarium project.  First, to create the MicroAquarium, I had to obtain my materials. I collected a thin glass tank, a stand, and lid.   After that I proceeded to choose a water source with which I would fill my MicroAquarium.  I decided on the water obtained from the French Broad River at Seven Islands Wildlife Refuge.  The area from which the water was taken was in partial shade.  I figured that water taken from such a large natural water source would provide a diverse population of organisms for me to observe.  After deciding on that water, I used a pipet to extract water from the bottom of the large sample container and filled my MicroAquariom 1/3 up.  Then for my next 1/3 of the MicroAquarium, I transferred water from the middle of the sample container.  And then I filled my MicroAquarium up to a quarter inch from the top with water from the surface of the sample container.  I then added plant samples from the Plant A container and Plant B container to my MicroAquarium.  Once I had completed the MicroAquarium set up, I proceeded to place it under the microscope and begin my observations.  While I did not have much time left to observe, I was able to see a few organisms.  I witnessed small greenish single celled organisms swimming around quicker than a larger greenish organism that was floating around. I also saw a large purplish organism swimming around.  So that was my first day of making and quickly observing my MicroAquarium, but I hope to observe and identify the populations of organisms in my MicroAquarium more extensively in the next session.