Week Four

The first image I was unable to identify. It looks like an cluster of eggs. The brown color unidentifiable. It looks like there could be a possibility of six eggs. The second image is a Phacus. It is circular and flat with a short posterior tail. The green chloroplast is prevalent.

The last image is an ameba on top of a diatom. 

Week Four

I also found several Acanthocystis with frayed celia hairs. The two images above show the siliceous scales and spines. The green chloroplasts are also noticeable. The chloroplast is a food source for the algae (Free-Living Freshwater Protoza). The first image contains a diatom. The Acanthocystis moved very slow some stayed stationed. The diatoms had a faster pace.   

Week Four

­The last observation was most successful. My microscope skills are becoming better. My hand is not as temperamental with the focus as it used to. I took several photographs of main remaining aquarium. The aquarium's water level was half full. There where many died organisms at the bottom :(. Above is an image of two Glococystis Naegeli. Its a spherical cell body with a gelatinous matrix (Handbook of Algae).  

Week Two

My water is slowly disappearing :(. Several of the organisms that I took note of last week I notice were inactively moving at the bottom of my aquarium. Many rotifers and daphinas were found died. The movement of organisms this week was minimal compared to last. The aquarium is filled with smaller micro life. I counted three paramecium. Fluid in form the paramecium moved at a similar slow pace. One navigated with a notifiable head then reversed the navigation with what was recognized as the tail. I saw several epistylis attached to the amblystegium varium. I tried to relocate my actinasphaerium, nut I was not successful in finding it. The one organism that was new but was unable to identify almost looks like a cladoceran.

Week One

My aquarium contains the water from site four a horse farm pond in Knox County. first obvious changes I noticed the water level difference. It had decreased about 2 cm. I also saw that there where several air bubbles caught up in the amblystegium varium and the rhynchostegium serrulatum. My first observation through the microscope I noticed alot of movment from the rotifers. Every glance I saw at least two of the rotifers, relatively the same size. Some where feeding on the amblystegium varium. Out of all the organisms they were the fastest. I found at least three cyclops. All very still with little movement. For about five minutes i watch an arm growth from a difflugia. In the beginning I recognized it a a growing flagella but then noticed the arm would latch on to other organisms then the body of the difflugia would follow. The difflugia started growing two arms. After a while the arms collided.     

Observation One

Kenneth McFarland introduced the Micro Aquarium term project this past Tuesday. The purpose of the project is to file a collection of observations to learn the progression of micro organisms in a diverse environment. The different water sources that were gathered by McFarland will allow us (students) to create our own unique habitat. From my first observation I noticed two single celled moving organisms. The size of them vary. The speed of the larger wormed like organism was faster then the smaller one. Both where attached to the Chlorophyll multiple celled organisms. The overall color of my aquarium under the microscope is a yellowish cream. I plan on making my continual observations on wednesdays in the late afternoon.