Week 3

In my third observation, I found a couple of Diatoms. They were a yellow-brown color and in the shape of what I would consider a football. They had a center dot and no visible flagella. However, the internet said that if the Diatom was moving it was doing so due to the flagella. I also believe that I identified a Spirostomum. It was darker than most of the pictures of the other Spirostomum, but it was the closest thing that I could find. There were quite a few nematodes. They had very quick shaking motion that propelled them through the water. There was a fiber-like organism that wiggled its way through. As far as I could tell, it didn't seem to have any color; it was mostly clear.

I saw a rotofer; it was either the eugiena spyrogyra that I located last time or a new one. It looked the same, but seemed a slightly different color. I'm not sure that is enough to say for sure it was a second one. There is one organism that I have yet to identify. It is a brownish color and it is sort of an irregular shape. It dodges in and out of the dirt and other areas; it looks as if it is eating. There's nothing that I have found yet to further any research on it.

Helpful References:

http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/index.html?http://www.microscopy- uk.org.uk/pond/index.html

http://nematode.unl.edu/wormgen.htm

Much more interesting

On Tuesday, I went to observe my microaquarium and had the chance to look at it under the microscope connected to the computer. I was much easier to locate organisms and I also was able to take pictures and videos that I have yet to post. I found a few organisms that we were able to identify. The first being an algae called "Eugiena Spyrogyra". It had a spot near the tip called the "eye spot" and stripes on its body called the "pellicles". It also had what is called a "flagellum". It is what propels the organism into motion (Forest, 1954). The second identified organism was a "Rotifer". It was by far the most interesting. It had a spinning head that would draw in water and would process the water through its body and shoot it out it's side. Another organism was a "Paranemia"; it is classified as a protozoa (Patterson, 1998). It had a very distinct flagellum that showed up quite nicely in pictures. There were also several other things that I was unable to identify. After I observed my microaquarium, I placed a food pellet in it as instructed.

Helpful References:

"Atison's Betta Food" is 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%.

Forest, Herman S. Handbook of Algae. Knoxville: The University of Tennessee, 1954. Print. Patterson, D.J. Free-Living Fresh Water Protozoa A Colour Guide. New York: John Wiley and Sons Inc, 1998. Print.

Setting up the MicroAquarium

We began the lab by going over all the different types of water sources we had. I chose to use water source number 10. When we first looked through the microscope at the microaquarium I saw nothing moving. I only saw the soil and plants I had put in there. After looking a little while longer, I began to see little tiny speck floating around fairly quickly. Nothing special just very lightly colored specks. I thought that I had seen something larger float in front of the lens and then dodge into the soil, but I couldn't locate it after that. It should be interesting to see what shows up with the pictures we take.