Day 8

There had been a lot of change to the microaquarium the past week.  The aquarium was observed under a light microscope.  There were several different types of the organisms seen, some of which pictures were taken of.  Also noticed in the aquarium was the small production of air bubbles, meaning something has been producing some kind of gas in the tank.

The first major organism spotted in the tank was an Annelida.  The specific species has yet to be determined, but will be after a bit of research.  This species was spotted along the bottom of the tank and moved very quickly, however several good pictures were managed.

Annelida (Rainis and Russell 1996)

All over the tank, threadlike cyanobacteria was seen, along with non-moving diatoms.  The next major species spotted was Philodina.  Several of these organisms were congregated upon one of the plants.  Because they remain in the same location, a video was also made of this species.

Philodina (Rundle et al. 2002)

The next species seen swimming about was that of Vorticella.  This one moved quite quickly, but I finally managed a good picture.

Vorticella (Thorp and Covich 2010)

Last but not least, Chydoridae was spotted eating away on one of the plants.  He kept on moving up and down this one plant.

Chydoridae (Rundle et al. 2002)

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Rainis, KG and Russell, BJ. 1996. Guide to Microlife. Danbury (CT): Franklin Watts.

Rundle, SD, Robertson, AL, Schmid-Araya, JM. 2002. Freshwater Meiofauna Biology and Ecology. Leiden: Backhuys Publishers.

Thorp, JH and Covich, AP. 2010. Ecology and Classification of North American Freshwater Invertebrates.  Boston (MA): Elsevier Academic Press.