Last Friday I visited my MicroAquarium and I first noticed that the water level was down again so I filled it back up. When I put it under the microscope I had to search for any movement because I didn't really see any at first. I saw a few of the same rotifers as usual and I looked for the unidentified organism that I saw last week. I located what I think could be it but it hasn't grown any and it wasn't moving much. It could be an undeveloped organism of the same type. It's possible that the organism I saw last week was buried in the dirt at the bottom like it sometimes was before. I saw the translucent worm again buried mostly in the bottom, but I could only locate one this week. Unfortunately I didn't see anything new this week but maybe next week!

Week 3

The first thing I saw in my MicroAquarium Friday was the dissolving food pellet, so I looked at it under the microscope and found thousands of tiny organisms swirling around the food pellet. They were all too small to see up close on that microscope. I was scanning around and I saw the same rotifers as last week in larger numbers, still around the leaves of the plants. I saw the translucent worm-like organism again but this time it was not buried in the bottom, it was squirming around in the open water. Mr. McFarland informed me that it is called an annelid. One very interesting thing I did observe were some cool-looking tube-like things sticking up from the dirt in the bottom. I asked Mr. McFarland what they were but he wasn't sure, so I started looking in some books to figure out what this thing was. I couldn't really find out exactly what it was but I think it might be an immature Collotheca. Hopefully, when it matures I will be better able to identify it.

On Friday I went to visit my new Microaquarium and I saw some very interesting things under the microscope. First, I noticed that quite a bit of water had evaporated so I added some more water to it. When I got it under the microscope, I caught a glimpse of the same kind of translucent worm-like organism that I saw last week before it buried back in the bottom of the dirt. There was much more activity in the Microaquarium this week. I saw many small, fast-moving organisms called lecanes which are in the rotifer family and they were all over the small green plants. They are small and round with a short tail that helps them move around and swim. They were swimming around the leaves of the plans and looked like they were feeding on something on the leaves or on the leaves themselves. I will keep observing these micro-organisms and record their behavior.

Last Tuesday I created my MicroAquarium with water from Spring Creek off Woodson Dr. running throught Dean's Woods Road, Knox Co. Tennessee. Partial shade exposure. I added Plant A- Amblystegium varium collected from: Natural spring. at Carters Mill Park, Carter Mill Road, Knox Co. TN. with partial shade exposure. Plant B- Utricularia vulgaris, a carnivous plant. Original material from south shore of Spain Lake , Camp Bella Air Rd. White Co. and grown in water tanks outside of greenhouse at Hesler Biology Building. The University of Tennessee. Knox Co. Knoxville TN. When I looked at the MicroAquarium under a microscope, I found some interesting translucent worm-like organisms but nothing else unusual. Hopefully I'll see more tomorrow!