And my blogging career has come to the end...

I observed the Micro Aquarium November 14 from 11:30-12:30 EST and my goodness. Where has everyone gone?!? My first point of prominence is the food pellet, I love all the activity around this area. This time I was disappointed as the activity had severally decrease. Just the week before it was absolutely crazy with activity and now it was very slow as the life began to dissipate. The other thing I really noticed was the increased size of the annelids.  As Dr. McFarland explained it to me this is due to them using the other organisms to survive. Another item I was looking forward was possibly seeing skeletons for some of the deceased, but after some searching none were to be found. It is amazing to me the level of activity as the weeks transpired and now to see fewer living organisms. It really shows hoe a mini ecosystem can boom with the introducing of food and bust will no food source. Honestly I was not looking forward to this little experiment but after seeing it I was truly blown away!

Life continues!

 

 

This week I viewed my Micro Aquarium on Wednesday November 7, 2012 from 12:00 until 1:31 EST. During this time I saw many microorganisms, many of which I had viewed before. My favorite place to observe was around the food pellet, which was significantly smaller than last week. The activity around the pellet reminds me a busy street in New York City! What I mean by this is that organisms around the pellet are coming in and going at such a crazy pace it is great to view. One of the neatest organisms that I viewed was a Lepidodermella! I was very proud that this is the first organism that I saw and identify by myself. (Later verified by Dr. McFarland) I used page 179 of the book titled A Guide to Micro life to identify the organism. I have included an image of this below as Figure 1. After identifying this I proceeded to the middle portion of the aquarium and witnessed some of the same creatures as before. I was quite disappointed to not see the Cyclops again as it was my personal favorite from week 1. The next image I noted was called a Coleps. This was a very neat creature as it appeared to have several “fingers” surrounding it. You can view some of these below in Figure 2. I identified this microorganism on figure 375 on page 162 of the book titled Free-living Freshwater Protozoa: A Colour Guide. This coleps was moving very slowly and appeared to be glowing due to the fingers around it continually moving. I concluded my ninety minutes of investigation by searching the bottom of the aquarium near the soil area. This portion was not nearly as active as the middle portion. (that is where both images were found, most likely due to the placement of the pellet) When leaving the room I added more water to the aquarium to top it off. Overall this experience, in general, has been eye opening! I would lie if every time I get in the shower I now wonder what may be crawling on me. Even beyond that everything that I drink, and consume, I began to think this sane thing! Look forward to going back and viewing more items next week.

 

 

Figure 1

 

 

Figure 2

 

 

 

Patterson, David J. Free-living Freshwater Protozoa: A Colour Guide. London: Mason Publishing Ltd., 1992. 162. Print

           

Rainis, Kenneth G., and Bruce J. Russell. A Guide to Microlife. New York: Franklin Watts, 1996. 179. Print

            

Second Week, Food = New Life!!

I observed my Micro Aquarium this past week on Wednesday, October 31, 2012. This week I saw an enormous amount of activity as compared to the first week! This had to be directly related to ONE Beta Food Pellet being added to the aquarium on October 26, 2012. This information was provided by http://botany1112012.blogspot.com/, it mentions that this pellet is an Atison’s Betta Food which is made by Ocean Nutrition, Aqua Pet Americas, 3528 West 500 South, Salt Lake City, UT 84104. The ingredients include the following; Fish meal, wheat flower, soy milk, krill meal, minerals, vitamins and preservatives. Analysis: Crude Protein 36%; Ash 15%; Moisture 8%; Crude fiber 3.5% and Crude fat 1.5%. This week I observed many organisms that were actively “eating” from the pellet. The most unusual creature I saw was a Microchlamys which I have added a photo below.  I identify this was the help of Figure 10 on page 191 of a book that was located in the classroom titled An Illustrated Guide to Protozoa Society of Protozoologists (Levine, Lee 1985). As I was explained to me by Ken McFarland which the image of, we are looking at the top image of the organism. In addition to this I saw many annelids, but was surprised to not be able to locate the Cyclops. (This was my personal favorite from the first observation) The next week I look forward to seeing all of the new creatures increase in size and see how many new organisms I can locate!

 

Figure 1

 

An Illustrated Guide to the Protozoa. Society of Protozoologists, Lawrence, Kansas. Levine, N. D. 1985. Phylum II. Apicomplexa. In: Lee, J.J

Week one was amazing!!!! Living organisms in there.

 On Friday October 26th I had the opportunity to spend three amazing hours from 11-1 EST in room 202 of the Hesler Biology Building on the University of Tennessee campus observing my Micro Aquarium. During this time I was able to view my active aquarium under a microscope and was also able to take images of some of the organisms. To say the least once I put the aquarium under the microscope and began to see the movement I was shocked.  It may be my ignorance but I never knew that such a wide array of living things in such a small place was possible! This was truly a great discovery. I began by searching the bottom on the Micro Aquarium and to my surprise almost immediately spotted a living organism that looked like something out of a science fiction movie. Right then I asked for the assistance of Ken McFarland to help me identify this organism, to what he described as a Cyclops. (Image One) This was confirmed in a book that was located in the room that exampled this time of creature. (Pennak) I have attached an image of this incredible creature. Some more of the organisms that I viewed, all that were identified by Mr. McFarland, were the following; a flatworm, an annelid worm, and even an aeolosoma hemprichi. The latest mentioned, the aeolosoma hemprich, was verified by figure 9 on page 299 of the book titled, Fresh-water Invertebrates of the United States; Protozoa to Mollusca, 3rd Edition. I have also attached an image of this organism, truly breathtaking! (Image Two)When leaving the room I did add more water to the aquarium as some had evaporated and wanted to make sure that the creatures had enough room to live and roam. Next week when I check back I hope to locate and identify many more organisms and add more photos for everyone’s enjoyment, great stuff!

Image One

Image Two

Pennak, R. W. 1989. Fresh-water Invertebrates of the United States; Protozoa to Mollusca, 3rd Edition. New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.

Updated First Blog

This past Wednesday I sent up a MicroAquarium in or to do a study regarding a collection of microorganisms.  To set up the study I selected a water source and added two separate plants to the water. The water I selected was extracted by our instructor from Dean’s Woods-Spring Creek. Spring Creek is located in Knoxville Tennessee off Woodson Drive and runs through Dean’s Woods Road frontage at N35 55.274 W083 56.888 at 848ft. The creek is partially shaded and is from the Tennessee River shed and fissidens fontanus moss is present in the stream. I collected the water in three separate areas taking 1/3 of the needed water from each. The three areas were the bottom which included some sediment, the middle, and the very top of the water source.  After this I added two separate plants to the aquarium. The first plant that I added was from a Natural spring at Carters Mill Park located at the coordinates N36 01.168 W83 42.832 . This name of this plant is amblestegium and is a type of moss. The second plant added was a flowering plant that came from the south shore of Spain Lake located at N35o55 12.35” W088W020’ IN Sparta, TN. It is now growing in the greenhouse outside of the Hesler Biology Building. The name of this second plant is ulticularia gibba. After adding both of these plants and water I placed the MicroAquarium on its side to view the organisms inside it. I observe the individual plants but did not see anything that was moving, going forward I look forward to see the organisms evolve.  The information that I included regarding the plants and watersource can be found at the floowing link; http://botany1112012.blogspot.com/

DAY 1 MicroAquarium

MicroAquarium Day 1

This past Wednesday I sent up a MicroAquarium in or to do a study regarding a collection of microorganisms.  To set up the study I selected a water source and added two separate plants to the water. The water I selected was extracted by our instructor from Dean’s Woods-Spring Creek. Spring Creek is located in Knoxville Tennessee off Woodson Drive and runs through Dean’s Woods Road frontage at N35 55.274 W083 56.888 at 848ft. The creek is partially shaded and is from the Tennessee River shed and fissidens fontanus moss is present in the stream. I collected the water in three separate areas taking 1/3 of the needed water from each. The three areas were the bottom which included some sediment, the middle, and the very top of the water source.  After this I added two separate plants to the aquarium. The first plant that I added was from a Natural spring at Carters Mill Park located at the coordinates N36 01.168 W83 42.832 . This name of this plant is amblestegium and is a type of moss. The second plant added was a flowering plant that came from the south shore of Spain Lake located at N35o55 12.35” W088W020’ IN Sparta, TN. It is now growing in the greenhouse outside of the Hesler Biology Building. The name of this second plant is ulticularia gibba. After adding both of these plants and water I placed the MicroAquarium on its side to view the organisms inside it. I observe the individual plants but did not see anything that was moving, going forward I look forward to see the organisms evolve.