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.