Tuesday, October 23, 2007

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.

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