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.