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.
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