11/11/08

It sees that I am continuously noticing less activity and fewer numbers of organisms in my microaquarium, but I do observe new organisms almost everytime. I saw a different type of analid besides the Chaetogaster Ananlids. I discovered that I also had Stylaria Analids as well. I referenced Guide to Microlife. This organisms was continuously eating and moving around slow as it was searching for food. It had a long body divided into segments. Each segment had bristles. Also, it had a trunklike appendage which Dr. McFarland noted as a probuscis. I had noteable much more algae in my microaquarium everywhere. It seems that when I first observed in my aquarium I hardly had any, but now it is everywhere. I continued to see many of the other regular organisms that i had noted every observation. However upon seeing them I only noted differently that their numbers were dropping. This particular day I viewed the bottom of my microaquarium to observe what I could see. I saw many different dead organisms including the cyclops that was so hard for me to observe due to its rapid movements. I noticed ciliates feeding off of the dead organisms.

11/4/08

During this week's observation I noticed different organisms but there was less activity. Last week was chaos compared to the calmness this week. I first noticed much bigger algae. This algae started as single-celled but now has grown. An organism that i hadn't seen before was a difflugia. I used the World's Visual Guide chart on the wall to identify this organism. This difflugia looked like a round, brown circular mass with a number of tenticle looking things. It was moving around pretty slow and seemed to be propeled by little feet under his body. Next, I viewed a lacrymaria. I referenced this organism in the book Free Living Fresh Water Protozoa. It had a teardrop type body with a long neck that would stretch in and out. This week i was able to view the cyclops much better, because it stayed still for a period of time. It appears to be very distinct with two horn looking things sticking out on either side of its head. On the other side of its body are two sharp points that seem to make a tail. I viewed a different type of cyclops next. This was a Juvenile Cyclops, or Nauplius Cyclops. I referenced the book Fresh-Water Biology. This baby cyclops is much different looking than the other adult cyclops. It reminds me of a spider type body with spikey legs sticking out. It has two larger ones on its upper half and two smaller ones below these. This cyclops was moving extremely fast and was hard to keep up with it. I still saw many of the old organisms that I had previously seen, but their number count seemed to have dropped.

10/28/08

This week in observing my microaquarium i noticed a lot more activity and movement since Dr. McFarland added food. It seemed that due to the addition of the food many of the organisms reproduced. One of the first things that i noticed was that there were analids everywhere. I saw these long, narrow bodied organisms moving around everywhere. It almost seemed like they were bullies to other organisms due to their size. Next, I observed the very boring paramisium. These organisms just seemed to be floating around and lost. I soon gained interest in observing a snail. This snail seemed to take up my whole visual when i was under the microscope. It looked to big. The snail was crawling along and even almost escaped my microaquarium at the top. The snail had two eyeballs with two larger tenticle looking things. However after this snail i saw a couple of baby cyclops'. It seemed like they were moving a hundred miles an hour. I could only keep with with them to get a visual a couple of times. They looked like a crab and a spider combined. Some of these organisms even carried eggs on them. I found rotifers again like i did last week. The only real difference that I noticed about them was there were so many of them now. They continued to move around sifting the water. Also, i found some of the turbellaria that i viewed last week. I observed them moving around and eating. All around i noticed single celled algae everywhere. Also around my microaquarium I observed blue-green algae, cyanobacteria. I referenced these cyanobacteria, using The Algae A Preview, to be lyngbya. These lyngbya's had sheaths with no gaps.