Observation

On 11/20/12 I made an observation of my microaquarium.  This observation went very similar to my previous ones.  The biggest thing I noticed was the growth in life, there was more living organisms and they were also larger.  I also noticed that there were several more flageolets than in previous observations.

Observation

On 11 / 13 / 12 I made another observation of my microaquarium.  There is not much going on, the biggest change is that as time goes along there are more living organisms in my microaquarium.  There are also more diatoms in my aquarium as well.  Along with more living organisms they are also growing, becoming larger.  The organism that I noticed the greatest growth in was the Euplotes.

Observation After Food Pellet

On 10/ 30/12 I made my observation.  After the Betta Food Pellet was added I have begun to see many changes in my microaquarium.  To start I noticed a lot more life in my microaquarium than I did at the start.  At the start I had one Cyclops and now I have two and they are also larger now (Smith 2001).  I also saw several Cyclidum in my microaquarium (Patterson 1996).  The Cyclidum are slow moving and are a little more stationary than normal.  I also saw Euplotes in my microaquarium (Patterson 1996).  All the organisms seemed to be swarming the food pellet for food, so this was the best place to make observations.

My Microaquarium At The Start

Betta Food Pellet

Betta Food Pellet Added To Microaquarium

On 10/ 26/ 2012 Betta food pellet was placed in my microaquarium.  The Atison's Betta Food was made by Ocean Nutrition, Aqua Pet Americas.  They are located 3528 West 500 South, Salt Lake City, UT 84104.  The ingredients of the pellet are fish meal, wheat flower, soy meal, krill meal, minerals, vitamins and preservatives.  In deeper analysis the food pellet contains Crude Protein 36%, Crude fat 4.5%, Crude Fiber 3.5%, Moisture 8%, and Ash 15%. (McFarland 2011) 

Bibliography

McFarland, Kenneth [Internet]. An Inquiry To The Dynamic Microorganisms In Our Environment Botany 111; 2011 [cited 2012 October 21]. Available from: http://botany1112011.blogspot.com/

Smith G Douglas. 2001. Pennak's freshwater invertebrates of the United State: porifera to crustacea. 4th ed. United States of America: John Wiley & Sons Inc.

Patterson D. J. 1996. Free Living Freshwater Protozoa. London: Manson Publishing Ltd.

First Day With The MicroAquarium

Water Source

My water source is the Pond at University of Tennessee Hospital.  It is located on Cherokee Trail in Knox County, Knoxville TN.  It is exposed to  Full sun and is a storm sewer sediment pond.  Its geographic location is N35 56.305 W83 56.717.  The pond stretches to 850 ft long as of 10/9/2011.  This pond contains the Chara species, which is in the Green alga Family Characeae.

Setting Up The MicroAquarium 

The first step was to choose our water source to make our MicroAquarium with.  Then we started to make our MicroAquarium.  We had a glass tank, a stand holder, and a lid.  We used color coordinated dots and our initials to label our tank by placing them on the left edge of the tank in a vertical column.  We then used a pipet to extract water from our water source, which was in one of the containers on the lab bench.  We extracted just enough water from the bottom of the container to fill the MicoAquarium tank 1/3 full.  Then we extracted the next 1/3 of water from the middle layer of the water source.  Then we filled the rest of the tank with water from the surface of our water source.  Then we put in "Plant A . Amblestegium sp. Moss. Collection from: Natural spring. at Carters Mill Park, Carter Mill Road, Knox Co. TN. Partial shade exposure. N36 01.168 W83 42.832. 10/9/2011a." (McFarland 2011) and "Plant B. Utricularia gibba L. Flowering plant. A carnivous plant. Original material from south shore of Spain Lake (N 35o55 12.35" W088o20' 47.00), Camp Bella Air Rd. East of Sparta Tn. in White Co. and grown in water tanks outside of greenhouse at Hesler Biology Building. The University of Tennessee. Knox Co. Knoxville TN." (McFarland 2011)  Then we were done making our MicroAquarium and were able to observe it in the microscope by gently laying our tank flat on the microscope stage.

First Observation

In my first observation I was able to see several different forms of life.  Here is a list of some of the life my MicroAquarium contains.

Mayfly Nymph - is a insect that lives in freshwater, has 3 jointed tails, and has gills on its sides

Green Algae -  has spherical colonies, cells with 2 flagella

Crustacea - Ostracods - is a Arthropod and has a bean like shell

Ciliates - Suctoria - is a Protozoa and has sticky tentacles that capture prey

Ciliates - Strentor - is a Protozoa and has fixed shape cells with a fixed mouth

Bacteria - is single celled and looks like dots or strands