10/22/2008
So today when I went to look at my microaquarium, it was rather empty and sad. There were several air bubbles and some of the water had dried out. I had a hard time finding any organisms. Of course I saw the diatoms and little zippy species, which I still cannot get an answer as to what they are... I went searching for my little cyclops friend and saw it swimming around towards the bottom of the microaquarium near the dirt, but then I saw a sad thing. A dead exoskeleton of another cyclops. Sad, they're all dying off in there! I guess they must be starving. I did see a huge water flea and a midge (Pond II: Large Microlife poster) , which will turn into a bug later on in life. I also saw several rotifers ("Fresh Water Biology" book)
Another interesting thing happened though, I was starting to give up on my search for new organisms to identify when it was pointed out to me that the little blobs in the microaquarium where actually organisms. These little amoeba (Pond I: Smaller Microlife poster) blobs had been there the whole time, I just wasn't looking for them. They were interesting and apparantly there are two kinds with 2 or 1 nucleus, but mine had only one nucleus in it. The little spiral springy organisms that I failed to identify last week were all over one of the plants in my aquarium, but none of them were moving. I was told they were just feeding, but I think they were dead. They were so lifeless. But I managed to identify them as epistylis ("Free Lving Freshwater Protozoa D.J. Patterson Pg 113).
Lastly, I accidentally spilled some of the water out of my microaquarium! So i refilled it with some water, but I am scared I lost some of my organisms, I will find out next week after the lab instructors put in a food pellet and see if there is a boom in the organisms again...
picture from http://www.microimaging.ca/protozoa/vorticella.html
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