Nov. 15th

This is my fourth and final observation. The first thing I noticed this week was the amount of water that was lost from last week. It probably lost 1/4 of it's water. I started examining the area of the tank that is completely dry. I see many dead organisms and a few Arcella amoeba that appear to be dead also. Off of the food pellet, it appears that hyphae are growing off of it. The Beta food pellet was inserted on October 21, 2011."Atison's Betta Food" made by Ocean Nutrition, Aqua Pet Americas, 3528 West 500 South, Salt Lake City, UT 84104. Ingredients: Fish meal, wheat flower, soy meal, krill meal, minerals, vitamins and preservatives. Analysis: Crude Protein 36%; Crude fat 4.5%; Crude Fiber 3.5%; Moisture 8% and Ash 15%. The viney growth in the mud is thriving, and continuing to grow upward. Arcella amoeba are littering the whole tank now. The 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. 10/9/2011
has been completely dissolved. I suspect that the organisms living in the tank were responisible for this. The other plant, 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. is contiuing to thrive and is growing outward of the tank. This plant may have crowded out the other moss. I just noticed a nematoad in the mud. It appears to be grabbing mud and wrapping it around to form a bundle. The green viney growth I have mentioned in most of my blogs has been identified as Cladophora, or green algae. (Canter-Lund.Lund."Freshwater Algae Their Microscopic World Explored." pg72 figures 118-121.)

Nov. 7

This is my third observation and already I can see with the naked eye some of the organisms swimming around. This shows how much they have  grown in a weeks time!Above is also pictured Seed Shrimp, or ostracoda. I noticed that there are these new organisms showing up scattered throughout. They are pictured above and are shaped like a sun with rays that are connected. These organisms have been identified as arcella amoeba. They do in fact move, but it is extrememly slow going process. I also noticed that the green viney growth has appeared to stop spreading in the mud and might actually be dying. It is turning a pale brown color. Not much more than what I have mentioned above has changed from my second observation.

Oct. 27

This is my second time observing the microaquarium, and it appears that the viney growth I mentioned in the first observation has grown throughout the mud and into the middle layer. One of the first things I noticed when looking at the slide were two fungi looking balls at the edge of the water at the top. One of the plants appears to be dying because it is turning a pale brown color. A piece of the plant broke off and it seems to be surrounded by tiny specks that are actually living organisms. They appear to be eating at the broken section of plant. This is the first time I've noticed these creatures, and they don't appear to be anywhere else. There is also what appears to be a smear of fungus or algae growing directly in the middle of the microaquarium. There is a bean shaped organism eating on the algae growing on the right.

Oct. 18

This is my second observation of the microaquarium. There is a viney green organism growing at teh edge of the mud. Also swimming around  in each layer of the water is a kite shaped bug like organism that will swim in a circular pattern then stop for a few seconds and do it again. There was also a bean shaped organism that seems to be eating little white clumps near the moss. In the mud layer there is also a swimming organism that has two tails and two antennae. There are many of these within the layer of mud, and give the appearance that the dirt is alive and moving. In the middle layer, there is a tube-like organism with twin tails that extend from inside the tubelike organism. Each organism I have observed has a red dotted area near the front of organism. I assume the red dots are the brains of the organism.

Setup of Microaquarium

I used the water sample from Meads Quarry, Island Home Ave,Knox Co. Tennessee Partial shade exposure Rock Quarry N35 57.162 W83 51.960 880 10/9/2011. When I observed the water sample in my tank I noticed one or two small swimming organisms. They would dart across the tank until they hit the wall. I took a sample of the mud, a sample of the middle layer of water, and a sample of the top of the water. This will give the organisms that live in the different zones a chance to thrive.