Snails and Seed Shrimp

For my last observation I noticed a lot more activity in my microaquarium compared to last week. There were several organisms that seemed to be plentiful in only a weeks time since my last observation. Two organisms that I was able to see and indentify that weren't previously noticed, were the snail and a seed shrimp. The snail was what would be typically expected of a snail in that it had a circular, spiral shell and was able to move by crawling around the tank using its body to pull itsself around. I was able to indentify the organism by the poster Pond Life II. The second new organism I was able to identify was the seed shrimp, which was a dark beetle- like organism that moved very fast around the microaquarium (relative to everything else) and was also much larger than any other organism that I had seen. The swimming pattern to me resembled that of a squid in that the flagella seemed to drift on the same side as the mouth and it appeared that the organism wa swimming backwards. I was able to identify this organism using the book Guide to MicroLife by Kenneth G. Rainis and Bruce J. Russel.

Amoebaes and Gastrotrichs

Gastrotrich

Litonitus

Midge

Midge

My observation for this week was not as eventful so to speak. It appeared that many of my organisms had died and there numbers were not near as abundent as my previous observations. I was able to spot the Midge from my last observation but was unsuccessful in finding another Litonitus or the mystery ciliated organism that I observed. I did however see and identify two new organisms that I did not notice before. The first organism that I spotted was a Gastrotrich, which was a relatively fast moving organism that was difficult to maintain in focus and the field of view of the microscope. I was able to identify the organism from the book Guide to Microlife by Kenneth G. Rainis and Bruce J. Russel on page 177. The second new organism that I was able to spot and identify was a Polypodial Amoebae. The amoebae was a very slow moving organism that 'oozed' around the microaquarium, the amoebae was also hard to spot but not because of movement but because of transparency, the microscope magnification and light ammount had to be just right to get a good look. I also have pictures of the gastrotrich, the litonitus, and the midge.

Midge spotting 10/30/08

My observation of the microaquarium was a very interesting one. I observed many different micro-orgainsims in two of which really caught my eye. The first was a Midge which I was able to identify by the poster Pond II 'Larger Microlife" ( Gordan Peachey 1998). The Midge was a technically an insect larvae and was easy to spot because of it's comparably larger size to the other organisms that I saw. I observed the Midge eating many of the other smaller organisms and traveling back and forth from the soil in the bottom of the aquarium to the water just above the soil. The second organism that caught my eye that I was able to identify was a Litonotus from the book The Living Freshwater Protozoa 'A Color Guide" by DJ Patterson of the University of Bristol on page 132 figure 285-287 'Litonotus'. The Litonotus is a cilliated protozoa that has a ovate body with contracting bottle-neck shaped mouth and neck with two distinguishing circular nuclei in the middle of the organisms body. I also observed another organism that I was unable to identify that was similar to the Litonotus but did not have the distinguishing two circular nuclei in the middle the organism was ciliated but had longer more distinguished cillia on the right side of the organism, so the I will continue to try to identify the organism but at this time shall remain unknown.

Crazy Lookin Crabs 08/14/08

The first look at the microaquarium was very interesting. I noticed some very fast moving creatures that resembled crabs that first caught my eye. The next thing i noticed was a some odd looking worm-like creatures that moved very fast in a whip-like motion to swim through the water, the next thing I noticed was what looked like an inch worm moving through the water which I was later told to be a rotifer.