Microaquariam observation part 2 

Sunday, October 28

I checked up on my microaquariam Thursday, October 24 and found some very interesting organisms. The cyclops was a moving organism that propels itself forward searching for what it looks like to be food. It is a mulitcellular organism that has sort of a drab green/brown color. It liked to swim in the middle where the algae plants were. I only got to see one of these organisms, when we first viewed them, I saw two.  Hopefully more will come up as I continue observing. The next organism I was able to spot was a nematode.There were two multicellular nematodes that I did not see when I first set up my microaquariam. It liked to stay on the bottom only coming up hovering above the dirt for a short period then returning to the dirt at the bottom. These nematodes were clear. They did not have a color to them, so I was able to look inside their body which was very interesting! I have not seen any dead organisms, though I cannot locate the second cyclops body, I assume it maybe has buried itself in the dirt and is sleeping. The most interesting organisms I found that just recently came up were very tiny organisms. You can barely see them. They are clear and there were so many I could not count. I have no idea where these tiny organisms came from and I am having a hard time identifying them. They could possibly be tiny eggs from one of my organisms that hatched and are too small to identify yet. I asked a few people if they could help me identify them and they were just as confused as I was. They all liked to clump together in a big group. They stayed close to the bottom, although some ventured up. I hope this week when I observe my microaquariam again they will have grown so I can identify these tiny unknown creatures. 

First day microaquariam set up

When we got to our lab, we all grabbed a small container that would hold our microaquariam. Professor Mcfarland explained to us the various water samples he collected then we got to choose which water source we wanted to use. We set up this aquariam by putting togeather a small glass with a lid and a bottom stand. I chose to use a water sample from a duck pond. We filled the water about half way to the top then added plants to the water so that they can keep alive what ever organisms we had in the water. I decided to use all three plants. The organisms i saw under the microscope were mites. They looked like minature crabs and stayed in the dirt at the bottom of my microaquariam. That was the only living organism I could find under the microscope.