Week Five: The Last One!

On Wednesday Nov. 13th I officially had my last MicroAquarium observation. Surprisingly, I am kind of sad that this project is ending! I've thoroughly enjoyed these observations and watching the organisms grow and mature. Oh, how they grow up so quickly!

The very first organism I saw was a Nematoda and it was acting all sorts of crazy! In the previous observation the one I saw was not moving as fast as this one. I asked Dr. McFarland what he thought, and he said the one I am seeing this week is very young, hence the very fast whipping movements. As usual I also saw a lot of Bodo saltans, they were all over the place. I noticed that most of the Cyclops sp. that I saw were in the lower half of the tank. In Fig. 1 you can see a Cyclops sp. with eggs attached! I saw a very noticeable increase in Limnias, all of them located in the middle area of the tank. I saw at least 4 or 5 very close to each other! But I also saw just the shell of a Limnias (Fig. 2) that had A LOT of diatoms and blue-green algae feeding all over it, very cool! Dr. McFarland said it probably moved and left its shell, or it could have died.

  Fig. 1

Fig. 2

One of the more intriguing interactions I witnessed was a couple of Anisonema (Patterson 1992) feeding on an unknown cyanobacteria. In Fig. 3 you can see this, as well as an Amphora ovalis (Vinyard 1979) hanging out near by. Dr. McFarland was determined to figure out what this cyanobacteria was, and fortunately for some of my photos I was able to help him identify the Genus. In Fig. 4 you can see a cluster of these cyanobacteria, Genus Phormidium sp. (Forest 1954). Dr. McFarland paid close attention to the colors and the thin sheath in order to identify this organism.

Fig. 3

Fig. 4

Well, as I mentioned in my opening paragraph, I am sad to see this come to an end! These past 5 weeks have flown by. Time flies when you're having fun, right?! I have never had the opportunity to partake in something like this, and I am very grateful to have had this experience.

Week Four: Reproduction

I was looking forward to viewing this week, because I had a feeling I was going to see more activity since the organisms have had more time to feed and grow since adding the beta food pellet. On Wednesday Nov. 6, I saw A LOT of Bodo saltans through out the tank, but they were a bit more concentrated on the bottom of the tank. When I was in the highest magnification I saw something that looked familiar, but I had to go to a lower magnification to be able to see the whole organism... it was the biggest Cyclops sp. that I had seen yet! Even in the smallest magnification it was still too big for a photo of the whole body!

In my previous blog I said that I hoped to find new organisms, and I did just that! I was able to identify these worm-like organisms called Nematoda (Rains and Russell 1996), also known as Nematodes (thread worms). They were hanging around the bottom of the tank near the dirt and debris, and have a whip-like movement. I moved my tank to a microscope with a camera to take a photo but I was then unable to find it again.

The coolest organism I have seen yet would be a Limnias sp. (Pennak 1938). It is very sensitive to movement in the tank. I know this because it has a shell that it retracts in and out of, and whenever I would tap on the tank in would quickly shoot back down in it's shell then slowly come back out and start its propelling motion. You can see in Video 1 it retracting and coming out of its shell. In the highest magnification I took a photo of the Limnias sp., as shown in Fig. 1

 Video 1

Fig. 1

Having seen an increased number of Bodo, Halteria, Cyclops, and a couple Limnias, it seems like the organisms are starting to reproduce pretty well. I hope to discover something new in the next week!

Week Three: Beta Food Pellet Added

From the initial set-up of our MicroAquariums to week one, the organisms in our tanks were only feeding on what was captured in the tank from the start (plants, other organisms, etc.) I felt I had noticed a decrease in activity from the set-up to week one, and this was probably because the organisms were dying or hiding. On Monday October 28, 2013 Dr. McFarland added one beta food pellet to our tanks (McFarland 2013). The ingredients of Atison's Betta Food made by Ocean Nutrition, Aqua Pet Americas, 3528 West 500 South, Salt Lake City, UT 84104. are 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% (McFarland 2013). 

I was not able to identify any new organisms this week (Dr. McFarland had assisted me in identifying close to 8 different organisms last week!), but I did notice more activity in the tank, especially around the food pellet. It also seemed that some of the Cyclops sp. had grown a bit larger (I had only seen smaller ones and/or juveniles in the previous week).

I hope in the following week I am able to: capture more photos to study, identify new and different organisms, and see division or reproduction of organisms.