Thursday, November 17, 2011

The Final Week

On Thurday November the 10th I went to observe my mini aquarium for the last time. I was really worried when I got there and found that half of the water had evaporated from the tank.  I expected to see at least as many organisms as I did last week if not more until I saw how much water had evaporated.

I expected to see less of everthing but surprisingly that wasn't the case.  The thing that surprised me the most is I only saw 2 rotifers that week.  At the begining of this project, the majority of organisms in my aquarium were rotifers.  I think the decrese in the number of rotifers has to do with the inceasing number of coleps.  The number of coleps I saw had also diminished from the previous week probably due to the evaporation. 

Eventhough two of the four groups of organisms in my aquarium had diminished, the cyclops' were still thriving.  I saw twice as many baby cyclops' than I saw adults.  I also saw two more flat worms this week. 

I am missing some important information in my blogs like my sorces and info about my water source so here it is:

I found all of the organisms in my aquarium by looking in Freeliving Fresh Water Protozoa by D.J. Patterson published by Wolfe Publishing Ltd. in 1992.

My water source is water source #7:Pond at University of Tennessee Hospital. Cherokee Trail.   Knox Co. Knoxville TN Full sun exposure. Storm sewer sediment pond N35 56.305 W83 56.717 850 ft 10/9/2011 Chara sp. Green alga in Family Characeae.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Survival of the fittest

On Thursday November 4 I went to visit my aquarium for the 4th time.  Alot of big changes happended since the last time I was there.  Eveything had been reproducing and I think a bit of competition is going on. 

The first thing I saw that was drastically different than last time was the number of cyclopses in the aquarium.  I saw at least seven adult cyclopses and seven baby cyclopses which I had never seen in there before. 

I also saw a dramatic increase in the number of voticelle in the aquarium.  I found at least ten where usually I would only see about three of four. 

The most shocking thing I saw in my tank this week was the amount of coleps I saw.  This was schoking to me because I hadn't noticed any before the tanks were fed and now there are hundreds of them all over the aquarium.  I noticed that they like to stick together because where I found one there were always at least ten others with it.  I even noticed them attaching to and eating an organism.  I really hope that the organism, which looked like a rotifer, was dead before the coleps got to it.  The coleps seemed to be very hungry because every time I saw a clump of them they were eating something.  I think the coleps have been either eating the rotifers or eating the same thing rotifers eat because there seems to be less of them.

I also found a new little friend in my aquarium; he is a flat worm.  He truly is the king of the aquarium because he would run into other organisms and they would all swim away in fear. 

I think there is some kind of algae growing in my aquarium becase a large number of green dots have appeared on the aquarium.

I can't wait to go back and see what has changed since then.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Week 2: attack of the organisms!

On October 27 I went to observe my aquarium for the second time.  When I got there I expcted that some of my water would have evaporated again but surprisingly it didn't. 

The second strage thing I noticed was that I had an easier time finding organisms than usual; instead of hunting for them with the microscope, I could leave the aquarium still and many organisms would swim by.  At first I thought this was weird until I found out that our aquariums had been fed.  Our aquariums were given one beta food pellet ("Atison's Beta Food" made by Ocean Nutrition, Aqua Pet Americans, 3528 West 500 South, Salt Lake City, Ut, 84104.  Ingredients: fish meal, wheat flower, soy meal, krill meal, minerals, vitamis and preservatives.  Analysis: crude protein 36%, crude fat 4.5%, crude fiber 3.5% moisture 8% and ash 15%). 

Eventhough I wasn't able to stay long becuase of a doctors appointment I had, I was still able to see some amazing things.  The most interesting things I saw were these two really fast cyclopses.  I had to chase them forever with the microscope to even get a look at them.  Hopefully I will be able to get a picture of them this week.  There were also many organsims in the soil of my aquarium that I wasn't able to get a good look at yet.

I was also able to observe the dragonfly larva carcus and was surprised to find that none of the organisms were interested in it anymore. 

This week I plan to spend more time with the aquarium and finally upload some pictures :)

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Week 1

On Thursday, October 20th, I made my way to observe my aquarium to observe my aquarium for the first time since we set them up.  The first thing I discovered about my aquarium this week was that a good 1/3 of the water had evaporated out of it.  My first thought was about my poor organisms that live in there; I was afraid that alot of them died because of the loss of water but i was pleasently surprised when I found out this wasn't the case. 

This week, we were supposed to focus specifically on the diversity of our aquariums.  Eventhough there are many organisms living in my aquarium, sadly there is not much diversity among them.  The most abundant species in my aquarium are rotifers.  Just in this one observvation session I found 7 of them.  I found them at many differnt locations in the tank but more specifically around plant A feeding.  When I was observing the surface of the soil in my tank, I found two triangular shaped organisms that looked like mini tornados.  I found out that these orgaisms were called vorticella and they looked like tornados because of their cilia.  I also saw one cyclopse in the aquarium.

As for the dragonfly larva carcus, it is still there.  There are not many organisms feeding on it anymore.  There may also be a second dead dragonfly larva in the aquarium.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

The Beginning

On Wednesday October 12, 2011, we began our botany projects. 
The first thing we had to do to set up our  aquariums was choose the water that we would be observing for the next four weeks.  I chose water sample number seven which was from the little pond in front of UT medical center.  I chose that water because I live down the road from it and it would be cool to see what organisms live in it.  For the second step, we added two plants to our aquariums.  The third and final step was to observe our aquariums under the microscope for the first time.

I was amazed out how many microorganism I saw because I was only expecting to find a couple.  There were many different varieties of movment of the organisms I observed.  The organisms I found swimming around the middle of the aquarium either moved in a circular motion or in a regular linear path.  Unfrotunately those organisms swam too fast so I wasn't able to get a closer up view of them.  When I took a closer look  at the soil in my aquarium I noiced some really interesting thigs.  The first thing I saw was an organism that was pulsating and sucking in little specks around it, which meant that it was eating.  When I increased the magnification I could see its organs.  I later found out that that orginism was called a seed shrimp.  By far the most interesting thing I saw was also along the soil of my tank.  Along the top of the soil was what looks like a dead dragonfly larva.  When I increased the magnification I saw several little organisms feeding on it. 

I am excited to observe this aquarium over the next few weeks and especially to see what happens to the dragonfly larva.