Week 5

As a note, I missed the lab covering Units 17 & 18. I will be making those up this week with Michelle.

Onto week 5: I was only able to stop in for a short time this week, due to an upper respiratory bug. I didn't want to share with everyone using the computer, so I did not take any pictures.

This week saw a rise in the population of dileptus. They had seemed to have died off in week 4; however, I saw plenty of them this week. It may have something to do with the decline in the number of seed shrimp; I saw more dead seed shrimp than live ones this week.

I continued to see a good number of lecane rotifers. I could not find, however, either the philodina rotifer or the cyclopses. I did see some incredibly tiny creatures moving in the water; however, they were so small that I could not identify them, since they appeared clear. My guess would be that these would be bacteria.

I also saw an abundance of diatoms; previously, I had thought these small specks were merely debris. However, I saw once again an interesting arrangement of them like I did last week. This picture dates to week 4, but has not been published before.



After observing these diatoms, I was overcome by a terrible coughing fit, and I chose to leave the lab in order to prevent anyone else getting sick!

Week 4

So, this is a little late, mostly because I've been incredibly sick and unable to get out of bed for the past week.

Week 4 involved taking more pictures and finally identifying the creatures in my MicroAquarium.

In my last post, I had given all the creatures I observed affectionate pet names until such a time as I could properly identify them. I will now do so.

Sugar Pies= Lecane rotifers (Van Egmond, Wim. "Rotifers." Microscopy UK. 1995: On-View Ltd. Web. http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/wimsmall/rotidr.html)

Honey Bun= I could not find it again, so I could not identify it.

Kitty-Cat= Seed Shrimp (Thorp & Covich. Ecology and Classification of North American Freshwater Invertebrates. 1991: Academic Press, San Diego. Page 695.)

Puppy Wuppy= Dileptus (Patterson, D.J. Free-Living Freshwater Protozoa. 1992: Marison Publishing, Washington D.C. Page 135.)

Now, we get to the fun part: pictures!

As a note, it seemed that during week 4, the majority of the Dileptus died off, probably eaten by the seed shrimp, who were thriving.



Squishy= Just part of a bladderwort, one of the plants in the Micro-Aquarium.

Wiggles= Nematode (Smith, Douglas G. Pennak's Freshwater Invertebrates of the United States, Fourth Edition. 2001: John Wiley & Sons, New York. Page 193.)

This first picture is of the only Dilpetus I could find. ---->




The second picture is of a new type of creature, called a Cyclops. (Smith, Douglas G. Pennak's Freshwater Invertebrates of the United States, Fourth Edition. 2001: John Wiley & Sons, New York. Page 490.)

<------


The third picture is one of the many lacane rotifers I saw.
---------->



<---- Here's a Nematode



This is another new creature, a Philodina rotifer. (Pennak. Fresh Water Invertebrates of the United States, Third Edition. 1989: John Wiley & Sons, New York. Page 172.) -------->










<----- That's a seed shrimp.




That concludes my observations and pictures for week 4.

Week 3

I went and took pictures this past week, and I caught a really cool video of some creature dividing in two, which I will now post. :)

This first one is one of many similar creatures I saw. As with all of these photos, I will not be able to give you scientific names until I go back this week and look up the names. Thus, I will give affectionate pet names to each until I can further enlighten you. These are Sugar-Pies.

This next creature, the large bulbous creature on the left of the stem, I dub Honey-Bun. The one on the other side shall be called Squishy.








This long, worm-like creature is called Wiggles.










I named this type of creature Kitty-Cat.








This brown creature here is Puppy-
Wuppy.







The video I took is of a Puppy-Wuppy dividing into two Puppy-Wuppies. Enjoy! I will return next week with real names for these creatures, and more pictures!

Week 2

This week, I was only able to observe my Micro Aquarium for a short amount of time.

I noticed the continued presence of innumerable green football like organisms, which tend to cluster around other creatures as well as around plants.

I again saw a flea-like creature, swimming around chasing food.

I also noticed some new creatures. Several were just oblong shapes that moved around. They were brownish gray in color. I also saw some circular creatures swimming about as well; they were the same color as the oblong creatures.

I will be doing more detailed descriptions of the creatures this week, as well as including pictures if possible.

I did add a Betta Fish pellet to the Micro-Aquarium as food. The information on that pellet is as follows:
"Atison's Betta Food" is 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%.

Week 1- Addendum

Oops! I forgot to put this information about the two plants I put in the Micro-Aquarium.


Plant A . Amblystegium varium (Hedw.) Lindb. Moss. Collection from: Natural spring. at Carters Mill Park, Carter Mill Road, Knox Co. TN. Partial shade exposure. N36 01.168 W83 42.832. 10/11/2009Plant B. Utricularia vulgaris 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.

There we go...

Week 1: Set-Up and Observation

We set up our Micro Aquariums this week. I used water from source number 11, the Fountain City Duck Pond:

Fountain City Duck Pond. West of Broadway at Cedar Lane. Knox Co. Knoxville TN Full sun exposure. Spring Feed Pond N36 02.087 W83 55.967 963 ft 10/12/2009

After filling the Micro Aquarium with different layers of water from the sample, I added two plants and then placed the Micro Aquarium under the microscope to observe.

I saw probably thousands of tiny green organisms, shaped like footballs, that flitted around in the water, typically near the plants. They could move side to side as well as forward and backward, and they could also spin.

I saw one creature that looked like a flea. It had six legs, and it was shaped like a seed. It moved only when the Micro Aquarium was moved, but it was definitely alive. It also was near the plant life.

One creature I saw resembled a circle with a crooked tail coming from it. The tail moved around to move the creature. It was black, and it moved rapidly.

Finally, I saw one very strange creature. At first, I thought it was part of the plant I was observing; I was confused by the heartbeat-like pulsations however. It was a cell-like structure, with filled with brown material. The creature released a mass of the brown goop (for lack of a better word). There were many of the little football creatures surrounding it. As I continued to observe the creature, it released the remaining brown goop and darted away. I could not find it again.

I did not observe any other creatures of note.

Biology 111 Term Project

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