observation five 11/10/10

Observation: Today when I came upon my micro-aquarium the top was off and it looked like a little of the water had evaporated.  None the less when I looked at my micro-aquarium under the microscope I did not see the dead zone I observed last week. This week some of the organisms I observed in passed weeks had returned although not all of them. I still did not see any Vorticella. I did see a Marochaetus (Donner) and some Rotifers moving around this coincided with the fact that I did not notice any Actinophrys, which were the only organisms I saw last week.

   

Marochaetus prefer to live in mud or places with lots of cover or sediment.

  Rotifer are small aquatic organisms that can live in a variety of environments such as arctic lakes. They use their tail to propel themselves though the water in search for food (Gilbert).  

Citations: 

Dormancy in Rotifers

John J. Gilbert

Transactions of the American Microscopical Society
Vol. 93, No. 4, Symposium: Perspectives on the Biology of Dormancy (Oct., 1974), pp. 490-513

Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of American Microscopical Society

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3225154

Donner, Josef. Rotifers. Frederick Warne & Co. 1966

observation four 11/03/2010

Observation: Two weeks fallowing the addition of the Betta Food, The Number of species I observed has dramatically decreased.  I say non of the species I have seen in the previous three weeks and of the few individuals I saw most were to fast to really get a good look at.  However I did find a new organism that I have not seen before.  A Actinophrys (Patterson, 1992), I only saw one of them.  I do not know exactly why the species richness has decreased.  A hypothesis to why the species has decreased may be because the amount of food available in the ecosystem has diminished causing a mas die off.  Another hypothesis to way the observable species richness has decreased could be the Actinophrys.

   The figure to the left is an Actinophrys. Actinophrys is a predator that uses its long spike like arms to capture food (Bovee 1971).
















Citations:

• Feeding on Gastrotrichs by the Heliozoon Actinophrys sol
• Eugene C. Bovee and Dean L. Cordell
• Transactions of the American Microscopical Society
  Vol. 90, No. 3 (Jul., 1971), pp. 365-369
  (article consists of 5 pages)
• Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of American Microscopical Society
• Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3225197

 Patterson, D.J. Free Living Freshwater Protozoa. Manson Publishing. 1992.

observation three 10/26/2010

This week a "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%.) was added to the micro-aquarium. 


Observation: The numbers of individuals in the communities was greater today than it had been over the last two weeks.  This could be a response to the abundance of nutrients resulting from the addition of the Betta Food that was added.  Also the number of individuals out in the open was greater this week then in the las two weeks.  This could also be a result from the Betta Food.

  The image to the left is a Vorticella found in Ciliated Protozoa fig. 4A. Vorticella are usually bell shaped and long tails which they use to attach to fixed objects.  They feed by sifting for nutrients through the open end of the bell (from Transactions of the American Microscopical Society)










































sources:
 Transactions of the American Microscopical Society Vol. 50, No. 2 (Apr., 1931), pp. 81-123

Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of American Microscopical Society

http://www.jstor.org/stable/3222280

Bick, Hartmur. Ciliated Protozoa. World Heath Organization, 1972.

observation two 10/20/2010

observation: I saw more of the same organisms today. I saw some Vorticella (although not as many as I saw the first day) and I saw a good number of Rodifers swimming around. During my observation I saw a new species a Philidina (I used Fresh-Water Biology figure 959 to identify). Another thing I noticed was that there were a greater number of species living near the mud than out in the open.

Day one 10/14/2010

Setup: filled my MicroAquarium with water from the Holston River along John Sevier Hwy under I 40 Bridge Partial shade exposure Holston River water Shed N36 00.527 W83 49.549 823 ft 10/10/2010. For information on how to set up a MicroAquarium go to http://botany1112010.blogspot.com/ and look under the procedure section.
Observation: I spent about an half hour to an hour observing my MicroAquarium. I observed Vorticella (which Dr. McFarland informed the name) which look like little blobs attached to little hairs that are attached to the plant stem. I also some little critters crawling around on the plant stems.