Week 5

The aquarium had less activity during the fifth observance. Though many organisms were still present and multiplying, everything seemed to be moving at a moderate pace. With the naked eye, I could observe seed shrimp and annelids or planarians. My moss had grown and more algae were present.

OBSERVATIONS::

Seed Shrimp: I did not observe many generations of seed shrimp; most were mature. Most were concentrated at the bottom of the aquarium eating, but they could be found throughout the waters. I believe some of the seed shrimp were eating not only the alga but also the vorticella. The seed shrimp still moved quickly, but not as quick as in the past weeks.

Rotifer: Absent.

Unknown 1: Not observed.

Annelida: There was a lower concentration of Annelida this week, and most of the Annelida observed were adult. They were primarily present in the bottom or on the sides of the aquarium eating.

Paramecium: Absent.

Cyclops: Absent

Unknown 4: Not observed.

Planarian: I saw many Planarians throughout the aquarium. Some were eating around the alga, moss, and possibly the vorticella. Most were moving throughout the aquarium though I did observe one which was stationary in the middle of the waters. I thought it was dead, but upon closer observation I could see its cilia and inside structures moving.

Diatom: Numerous diatoms are located throughout the aquarium. They are stationary.

Vorticella: I saw many vorticellas along the walls of the aquarium.

Unknown 5: Again I observed this organism, and it appeared to have grown since I last saw it. Unknown 5 was moving a bit slower and was eating on the moss.

CONCLUSION::

I believe that some of the population decreased since the last observation. Most of the organisms I observed were mature; I only found a few juvenile seed shrimp. But some populations like that of the diatoms and Vorticella have increased, or at least I noticed them in greater quantity during this week 5.

One More Website

I found one last website which will assist me in my lab report. I needed to find the classification for the paramecium I chose to research: Paramecium aurelis.
The following website showed me the classification.

Official citation:

ITIS Standard Report Page: Paramecium Aurelia. "Paramecium aurelia Ehr." 12 November 2007. Accessed 12 April 2007.

Textbook Reference for the Paramecium

I have found my final source for the paramecium. In Dr. Wile's and Ms. Durnell's Biology book, I learned some more information on a paramecium's physical structures. Specifically I learned more about the oral groove and the reason a paramecium needs (or at least greatly benefits from) multiple nuclei.

Official citation:

Wile, Dr. Jay L., and Marilyn F. Durnell. Exploring Creation with Biology. USA: Apologia Educational Ministries, Inc. 1998.

Week 4

My MicroAquarium was a flurry of activity this week. It seems the only thing static is my moss. Three new organisms were identified: diatoms, planarin or flatworm, and vorticella.

OBSERVATIONS::

Seed Shrimp: Many seed shrimp of different generations were present all over the aquarium from the bottom to the top waters. All were either eating or swimming.

Rotifer: Absent.

Unknown 1: Not observed.

Annelida: Some of the older annelida have grown even bigger. There are many young annelida. Most remain in the bottom waters and around the moss where they get their food source.

Paramecium: Absent.

Cyclops: Absent

Unknown 4: I did not observe this organism on Tuesday.

Planarin: The planarin or flatworm looks much like the annelida. It has orange/red pigments and appears worm-like. But its movements do not resemble the worm. It swims through the middle and bottom waters, sometimes pausing to eat. Also, it is smaller than the annelida and doesn't contain the hairs on the sides of the body. I learned from Dr. McFarland that the planarin has two eye spots with which to detect light, but I didn't observe them for myself.

Diatom: Dr. McFarland saw diatoms scattered throughout my MicroAquarium.

Vorticella: The vorticella is a protist. The vorticellas are found on the edges of the aquarium and on the moss. They have an interesting motion; at sporadic times they will withdraw quickly toward their base. The vorticellas were visible at 100x, but even when Dr. McFarland moved to 200x, they were very small.

Unknown 5: I saw again the organism that I thought previously (Week 2) was a cyclops. I looked at the diagrams for the cyclops, and it didn't fit the description. Also, it moved around so quickly that I couldn't identify the organism. Maybe it is an insect larva.

COMMENTS::

Overall, the population is increasing; the seed shrimp and annalidas are the primary organisms. Last week I had observed that part of the algae in my MicroAqarium was greener than usual. When I looked this past Tuesday, there are now three greener areas.

Pictures of the Lab Room

This first picture is just of the microscope and MicroAquarium in the lab room.


Photo Row 1: Two pictures of my MicroAquarium. The first picture shows an old textbook from the 1900's which helps us identify our microorganisms.

Photo Row 2: Two pictures of the Annelida. It is very worm-like. In the second picture you can see the cilia on its body.

Photo Row 3: These two pictures show the seed shrimp. The second picture shows it opening up its outer casing.

Photo Row 4: These pictures are of the flatworm. It is quite motile and difficult to get a whole picture.

Photo Row 5: These pictures show the vorticella which Dr. McFarland discovered. It is a tiny, translucent protist in the side of the fern.

Journal Article

In searching about the paramecium, I found an article about Paramecium aurelia written by Earl D. Hanson. The journal article is extremely technical; I comprehended very little of the information. I did come to understand that the Paramecium aurelia is capable of regenerating a new gullet. There are three different instances which were observed when a new gullet was formed: a good gullet in operation senses the need to reproduce another gullet; restoration of an abnormal gullet; when the a gullet is destroyed, synthesis of a new gullet is undertaken.

Here is the official citation:

Hanson, Earl D. "Morphogenesis and regeneration of oral structures in Paramecium aurelia: An analysis of intracellular development." Journal of Experimental Zoology. 150 (1962): 46-67.

Note to Commentors

Thanks to everyone who took the time to read some of this. Just a note; the time attached to these posts is wrong. I was not writing about my MicroAquarium at 0300 (!), though I have written in the 0600 zone. And for those who requested more pictures, I am hoping to post a few today of the Quercus acutissima, and next week I am hopefully going to take pictures of my organisms.

Week 3

My MicroAquarium's population seems to be changing. Unfortunately, this change relates to the diversity I once observed. I have two primary organisms now: the seed shrimp and the annelida. There is possibly one new organism or one I have not observed before yesterday. Also, my MicroAquarium was fed with one pellet from Beta fish food yesterday, October 30, 2007.

OBSERVATIONS::

Seed Shrimp: I have a growing population of seed shrimp. I observed some baby seed shrimp yesterday which were about a quarter of the size of the mature seed shrimp. Most of the mature seed shrimp stayed in the bottom of the aquarium in the algae while the younger seed shrimp migrated through the middle and top waters. Their movements remained medium to quick.

Rotifer: The two rotifers that I observed two weeks ago are still gone.

Unknown 1: I might have observed this organism again, but its movements differed from my initial observations. The physical appearance--tiny and clear--was identical; since it moves so differently, though, I will tentatively label it as a different organism (Unknown 4).

Annelida: Plenty of annelida populated the bottom of my MicroAquarium. They were all moving spryly. I believe I observed some baby annelida swimming in the middle to bottom waters. The older annelida contained more of the orange pigments; the young annelida did not have any pigments.

Paramecium: The paramecium that I saw was not to be found. And after learning more about its habits and physical characteristics, I am not entirely sure that I did observe a paramecium.

Cyclops: The cyclops that I discovered last week is gone.

Unknown 4: This organism, as I mentioned before, is clear and very small. I only started seeing them when I moved to my 10x lense. I believe these were the creatures that I thought were inside the paramecium. They are found mostly in the bottom of the aquarium, but I did see random ones throughout the waters.

Even though I might not have a paramecium, I am still intrigued by this organism. I have done some initial research and still plan on writing about the paramecium in my lab report.

My Organism:: The Paramecium

After observing the paramecium for two weeks, I have decided to make it the central focus of my lab report. I searched online for some initial information on the paramecium as a beginning to my observations. I found a website which listed some facts about the paramecium; it contained an overview of the paramecium's physical structure, reproduction, behavior, and diet. Pictures accompanied the text providing a vivid description of the processes.

Official Reference:

BioMedia Classics - Paramecium introduction. "The Classics of Biology: Paramecium." 2007. Accessed 29 October 2007.

My MicroAquarium

Here is my MicroAquarium with the two moss sprigs.

Photos

I neglected to mention that I have photos of the Quercus acutissima and of my MicroAquarium. Those will be posted in the near future.

Week 2

I spent some time yesterday with my MicroAqarium, looking for any changes which have taken place sense last week. To the naked eye, I could only see that I had lost some water; whether through evaporation or processes in my aquarium I don't know. The following is an update on the microorganisms in my MicroAquarium.

OBSERVATIONS::

Seed Shrimp: The seed shrimp still had a defining presence in my aquarium. From what I could observe, their numbers stayed about the same. Most were congregated in the bottom of the aquarium; though, more were present on the moss sprigs this week. Also, some seed shrimp were swimming throughout the container instead of just remaining in the bottom. I did observe a few seed shrimp that seemed to be moving rather slowly. Maybe their numbers will start to dwindle in the upcoming weeks.

Rotifer: I was told last week that one of my organisms was a rotifer. Unfortunately, I could not find him yesterday.

Unknown 1: This organism, too, seemed to be either hiding himself or not be present. Although, I did observe that inside another one of my organisms there appeared to be a "moving thing" that looked very similar to this organism. But I do not know if this organism would still be intact and moving if he was eaten by someone else.

Unknown 2: No longer will this organism remain unnamed; it was identified yesterday as an annelida. This worm-like organism was present down in the bottom of my aquarium. Occasionally, one would take a jaunt through some middle waters, but it primarily stayed below. Most still had bright orange pigments. There appeared to be more of these organisms present than were present last week.

Unknown 3: This organism, too, has been identified as a paramecium. While I only saw one last week, I found many paramecium this week. They were present at the bottom of my aquarium. This parmecium seemed to have inside of them the "Unknown 1" organism: there were small, transparent organisms that moved quickly inside the paramecium. Out of all the paramecium I observed, not one of the moved.

Cyclops: Also, I discovered a new organism in my aquarium. It is tentatively identified as a cyclops. I only observed two of these organisms. They had a shrimp like body including the little feet underneath. Two antenna protruded from its head. The antenna were short and thick. It seemed to have two small tuffs for a tail. When it moved, it was propelled by the little feet, and sometimes it would fold over in half. It had very jerky, quick movement. He, too, seemed to remain only in the bottom of the container.


COMMENTS::

There seemed to be a general population increase since last weeks observations. But there are two factors which could cause this apparent (but possibly not true) increase. First, since last week was the first week, all the organisms might not have been moving about as they were this week. After a week to acclimate, I might have been able to observe more. Second, this is my first MicroAquarium project; therefore, I am unaccustomed to observing micro activity. Several organisms and processes could have easily gone unnoticed to me last week that I saw this week.
The upcoming weeks will better reveal whether the population of organisms have increased, decreased, or remained the same.

The Beginning

CONSTRUCTION::

My MicroAquarium is composed of three water sources from the greenhouse in the White Avenue Biology complex. Starting with the bottom of my MicroAquarium the water sources are as follows: Mangrove, Nepenthes, and Bromeliad. A Mangrove plant was growing in a water environment so I took a sample of water from the base of the container. The Nepenthes has jug-like leaves which capture water, and I took a sample from the middle portion of the water in the "jug." Lastly, the Bromeliead's leaves form such that water is captured in between spiraled leaves; therefore, I took a sample from the topmost portion.

After putting samples from these differing water sources in my container, I added two small moss sprigs. These moss sprigs were taken from two trees across from the White Avenue Biology complex. I chose to get moss from the Quercus acutissima or the Sawtooth Oak. The moss was growing on the side of the tree. So I took a small sprig from each sample and placed it in my MicroAquarium.

Now my MicroAquarium is all set up, and what is left is just the observations during the next four weeks!

OBSERVATIONS::

My initial observations led to the discovery of five different types of organisms. Only two have been identified at the present.

Seed Shrimp: The seed shrimp is a relatively large organism. It appears to have a hard shell casing which has spikes on it. At the front of the shrimp, there are long hairs witch protrude forward. Underneath the organism are several legs or structures used for propulsion. There were multiple living seed shrimp present as well as multiple dead seed shrimp. These organisms move very quickly and remain mostly in the bottom of the container where there is algae or something for the shrimp to eat.

Rotifer: The rotifer is a smaller organism which appears more worm like. It moves a bit slower than the seed shrimp. Its appearance is linear. At the front or bottom of the organism is a split with two tail like structures. The rotifer also stays at the bottom of the container. I only observed one (possibly two) rotifers.

Unknown 1: This organism is tiny and moves very quickly. I only saw two of these in my initial observations but they move so quickly that there could quite possibly by more present. This organism moves all around the container, not limiting itself to the bottom. The motion is unique; it uses almost a flipping right to left pattern to move in a straight line.

Unknown 2: This organism is larger than the rotifer but also worm-like in appearance. The movement of this organism also mimics that of a worm. It stays at the bottom of the container to feed on the algae. Also, it appears to have red pigments in its body, and some structure seems to be moving inside of it.

Unknown 3: This body seems to have the characteristics of an organism, but it doesn't move at all. So either it is an organism but it moves slowly, it is a dead organism, or it is not an organism at all. It is large and circular with hair-like structures around its outer rim. It also had small circular things inside of it.

Well, this concludes my observations. Stayed tuned until next time to see how the saga continues...