Tuesday, Nov. 13-Week 5

1: The overall environment of my Microaquarium seems calmer and less active. There are still lots of vorticella (on the moss), diatoms (spread through any open space in aquarium), and cyanobacteria (filaments have also spread out everywhere in aquarium).

2: The nematode population is most dense this week--I viewed at least 50 nematodes, squirming in place, concentrated at the bottom and around the moss, but scattered throughout the aquarium.

3: There seems to be less rotifer activity, most of the smaller rotifer species have died off, though the cyclops population still seems strong; there are more baby cyclops than adult cyclops.

4: PROTONEMA: I was able to identify protonemata extending off of the moss today! The green/brown network of long filamentous multi-celled structures are differentiable from cyanobacteria in that the cell walls are at diagonal, not perpendicular, angles with the filaments. The earliest stage of the bryophyte life cycle, these haploid structures develop out of spores, and will soon grow into the leafy gametophyte. This is exciting, I get to see what we're learning about (moss life cycles) in action!















^protonemata

Tuesday, Nov. 6-Week 4

***After feeding, did things multiply/grow/reproduce at a faster rate?? It seems so. I identified many more diatoms, rotifers, nematodes, vorticella, and seemingly most other organisms in the system.

1: Copepod Cyclops BABIES!
I encountered many, many cyclops babies. There were no baby cyclops last week, but after being fed, the cyclops seemed to reproduce quite readily. These young organisms look different from the adults with five "limbs" branching out along the front and sides of the body. They are slower and do not move in such frantic, sudden darts, but more of a steady slow pace. I found this concentrated towards the bottom of the aquarium, but there were actually several all over. They are non-green, multicellular, and soon to be full grown, larger cyclops. The cyclops population appears to be taking over the other rotifer populations.














2: Rotifer Ptygura:
This rotifer was anchoring itself onto a piece of difflugia (?) near the top of the aquarium. It had clearly visible cilia around it's "mouth" that spun around, vortexing food particles towards the opening. It was the only one of it's kind that I saw. It was tan (non-green) in color, multicellular, and drifted back and forth in the water. It seemed quite content on this difflugia, as it did not move the whole time I viewed the aquarium, whereas all the other rotifers were spastic and constantly darting around.





















3: Nematodes:
I saw two nematodes today for the first time. One was trapped/captured by something, and was frantically worming around, (unsuccessfully) trying to whip free. They were both a dark-greyish color with round, multicellular, long bodies. Their body structure can be described as a "tube within a tube;" they have digestive, nervous, excretory, and reproductive systems, but no circulatory or respiratory system. They are the most abundant animals on the planet! (http://nematode.unl.edu/wormgen.htm)
















4: OTHER PHOTOS OF MICROAQUARIUM:














^two Vorticella anchored on the central moss.

















^mother Cyclops carrying egg sacs (top view).
















^mother Cyclops carrying egg sacs, eating (side view).

Tuesday, Oct. 30-Week 3

THIRD VIEWING:

***Microaquarium was fed this week:
"On Thursday October 25, 2007 one pellet of "Atison's Betta Food" was added to each Micro Aquaria. It 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%."

1: COPEPOD CYCLOPS:
I viewed several (8-10?) copepods in my Microaquarium. They seem to be replacing the smaller rotifers, I did not find many rotifers at all today, only about two. These cyclops were concentrated at the BOTTOM of the aquarium, darting busily from place to place, feeding on the debris (I could actually see the material enter through the "mouth" and travel all the way through the organism's body and out its "anal" end!) They were translucent, clear around the edges and having a tan tint towards the stomach area. They have a single bright red dot on their forehead area, and two large antennae protruding from either side of the head. They are multicellular crustaceans of the phylum arthropoda.

I saw males (with no egg sac) and females (carrying egg sacs), like the one in the photo below.
(http://www.micrographia.com/specbiol/crustac/copepo/cope0100.htm)



2: VORTICELLA:
I saw many, many non-green, translucent vorticella attached to the moss of the aquarium this week. They look like "stalked inverted bell-shaped ciliates" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vorticella). They anchor themselves on the green moss (bottom/middle area) and drift slightly with the water. Vorticella can coil the stalk up as a adaptive mechanism, to shield from things like rough waters, and also to help gather food. They are heterotrophic and feed on bacteria. Utilizing the cilia around the "mouth" opening, vorticella can create a "vortex" to bring food sources in.
(http://microbewiki.kenyon.edu/index.php/Vorticella)



3: STENTOR:

A third new organism, the Stentor, took up residence in my microaquarium. Similar to the Vorticella in that it too, attached itself to the moss, the trumpet-shaped Stentor is larger and perhaps more complex than the Vorticella. They are one of the largest types of aquatic protozoans. They are non-green (light brown in color), multi-celled, and stationary on the moss, but motile in the sense that they can drift about and contract to catch food such as bacteria, other protozoans, and sometimes even little rotifers!

(http://microbewiki.kenyon.edu/index.php/Stentor)

Tuesday, Oct. 23-Week 2

SECOND VIEWING:

1: ROTIFERS: There are many more rotifers, in terms of density AND variety, in my microaquarium: the most common one (I saw about eight) appeared to be a Euchlanis Macrura, it swam with a strong sense of direction, stopping at patches of brown mossy debris, digesting some/all of it every couple of stops. It was multi-celled, non-green, and preferred the bottom or middle regions of the aquarium.
Euchlanis varieties have translucent bodies, with very intricate internal systems, including a brain, bladder, reproductive organs, intestines, and a stomach (no circulatory system). These omniverous beings use the cilia around their mouths to take up food, "chew" the food with their jaw-like mastax, and eventually excrete the waste through flame cells. (http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/techniques/dic/dicgallery/euchlanissmall.html)



I also observed (among several other rotifers similar to the Euchlanis type) one rotifer, closer to the top, that was much larger, and creepier looking. I identified it as a member of the Synchaeta species. It was definitely about 7x larger than all the others, and it had two large antennae on its head, as well as a red dot on it's forehead area. It's movement was sudden, random and jerky, remaining stationary for about 10-20 seconds, then suddenly making a quick, jerky movement of about 4 "steps." (http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/indexmag.html?http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/wimsmall/rotidr.html)



2: CYANOBACTERIA: I saw about five long, skinny, multi-cellular, photosynthetic strands of Nostoc cyanobacteria. I was about to view the nitrogen-fixing heterocysts. These were stationary, and preferred the middle region of the aquarium.



3: I also viewed more of the brown mossy debris, and the green multi-celled round organisms--there appeared to be roughly the same amount of these.

Tuesday, Oct. 16-Week 1

INITIAL SET UP:

WATER SOURCE:

5. Quarry Pond. North west of junction of Sellers Lane and Sherrill Boulevard. Knox Co. Knoxville TN. Full sun exposure. N 35o55' 09.96" W084o07' 29.82" 970 ft 10/9/2007

PLANT ADDED:

B. Rhynchostegium serrulatum (Hedwig)A. Jaeger
Collection from: Greenhouse in White Ave Biology Annex. The University of Tennessee. 1400 White Ave. Knox Co. Knoxville TN. Partial shade exposure. N 35o57' 33.45" W083o55' 42.01"
932 ft. 10/16-18/2007

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My microaquarium is labeled with a dark blue dot, green dot, and red dot.

I filled the microaquarium with water from a sample container labeled number FIVE: using a pipette, I filled the microaquarium 1/3 full with material from the BOTTOM of the sample (brown, light sandy soil matter, some water with fine particles), 1/3 full with material from the MIDDLE of the sample (mostly water, slightly yellow in color, with the same fine particles floating in it), and 1/3 full with material from the TOP of the sample (the same water, as well as several small, round green, floating specks).
I then obtained about an inch of a moss sample, labeled Moss B, with forceps, and inserted it into the middle of the microaquarium with a toothpick.

FIRST VIEWING: Organisms found:

1: I found an interesting organism. It was, small non-green, and translucent/clear, although the middle of it was tinted in brown, and it appeared to be multi-cellular. It resembles the form of a shrimp--a larger front area (with what looked like a round mouth) that slenders out to the end, with a short, pointed "tail," but it didn't have any visible legs/appendages. It moved around in a free-floating fashion, although it seemed to have a sense of direction as it occasionally stop to "feed" on pieces of brown matter. I observed about 4-5 of these, mostly in the bottom/middle regions.

2: Also saw several small (small than the above organism), circular, single-celled organisms, opaque-brown in color. These did move, although they didn't appear to move in any intentional direction, moving in more of a "pinball fashion", bouncing about as it ran into other particles. I observed about 8-10 of these, mainly in the bottom/middle regions.

3: Next I saw a couple large (quite large in comparison to the above 2) egg-shaped, multicellular green organisms. They were probably the green specks collected at the top of the water. The did not move, although it did seem to "pulse" (like a heartbeat) rhythmically. There were a few at the bottom, but the vast majority were at the top. Viewed about 7 at top, 3 at bottom. The first organism tended to migrate towards this... source of food?

4: Also found an organism, similar in size to the first "shrimp-like" organism. It was translucent, with green edges and a green lined circle on it's belly-area. It had 1-3 red dots on it's face/forehead area (it was hard to tell how many there were because of movement). It's form resembled that of trilobites. It appeared to swim intentionally, and it spun around slowly as it swam (imagine a football thrown spirally in slow-motion). I only saw one of these organisms at the BOTTOM of the microaquarium.

5: The final thing I viewed was the brown debris/soil/sand, clumped heavily at the bottom of the microaquarium, but also spread sporatically about the whole thing. It looked sort of spongy--loosely packed non-round brown "cells". There were hundreds of individual "cells", and they were not moving. Other organisms moved in and out of it freely.