Week 5 Observation

            This week I made my observations on November 13, 2013. This week there was even less activity than the week before. I noticed this week that there was a narrow threadlike organism that was all over the aquarium. At first glance this organism looks to be clear but adjustments allow you to view a moving nuclei throughout. Dr. MacFarland told me that he had seen it but was not yet able to identify the organism. He was able to inform me that the organism is coenocytic meaning that it is one continuous cell with many nuclei that is typical of slime molds. If you follow the threads to the end of the organism, you are able to watch it grow.

            A new organism I viewed was something that looked like a type of amoeba and seemed to be attached to the thread like structure. For the most part this organism did not move but would occasionally make an extension from round to oval and then contract back to a motionless ball.

            One thing that immediately stuck out to me was all of the debris casings that were left behind by the annelids. The dero and chaetogasters that were present have vanished and left empty debris tubes scattered throughout the aquarium. Upon further observation I was unable to find the corpses of the annelids and must assume they have decomposed or been eaten.

            Another thing I noticed this week about me aquarium was a large organism jerking around quickly. The organism was about half a centimeter and I noticed it before I even made it to a microscope. Upon further observation, I was able to identify the organism as an insect larva, but a different one from last weeks. This one was more transparent but had two visible eyespots. I was unable to capture a good picture of this organism because it stayed hidden on a dark leaf.

Week 4 Observation

            This week I made my observations on Wednesday November 6, 2013. I noticed that the number of living organisms had dropped since last week when the food pellet was introduced. The habitat seemed to have slowed down and things were beginning to deteriorate and die. The leaves are beginning to brown in areas and look as though they are being fed upon. The aquarium contained floating debris and many semi-transparent glob structures, possibly egg sacs, that were to be located along the leaves where diatoms may have previously been attached. 

            Although, my aquarium seems to have slowed down with organism activity, I have noticed a few new species. One of the new organisms I was able to is an insect larva. The organism would pull itself around at a steady speed that was not very hard to keep up with. The organism has hair like appendages along the side of its body and uses arm appendages to pull it around and eat. You can see the organism’s eyespots in Figure 1. The organism stayed on and around the leaves of the Fontinalis sp. and seems to be feeding on the leaves. The organism is a darker brown color and does not contain any chlorophyll.

Figure 1: Insect Larva
Photo by: David Colvin

Another new organism I observed in my aquarium was a small blue green one that seemed to glide smoothly through the open water. The organism moved very quickly and was difficult to follow for more than a few seconds. The organism seemed to have some small hairlike appendages that ran the length of its body and had a forked tail at the tail end as seen in Figure 2. I identified this common freshwater organism as a Gastrotricha chaetonotus (Thorp and Covich, 2010). 

Figure 2: Gastrotricha chaetonotus
Photo by: David Colvin

This week I observed an organism called a Philodina rotifer (Patterson D. J. 1996). The organism was very slow and had a brownish transparent color. It stayed in generally the same area on the Fontinalis sp. leaf and stretches out and contracts. 

Figure 3: Philodina rotifer sp.
Photo by: David Colvin

Bibliography

Bibliography

Prescott G.W. 1964. The Fresh-Water Algae. Dubuque, Iowa: WM.C. Brown Company Publishers

Prescott G.W. 1954. How to Know the Fresh-Water Algae. Dubuque, Iowa: WM.C. Brown Company Publishers

Rainis G. Kenneth; Russel J. Bruce. 1996. Guide to Microlife. Danbury (CT): A Division of Grolier Publishing

Bick H. 1972. Ciliated Protozoa. Switzerland: World Health Organization

Jahn T.L. 1949. How to Know the Protozoa. Revised Edition. Dubuque, Iowa: WM.C Brown Company Publishers

Patterson D.J. 1996. Free-Living Freshwater Protozoa. Barcelona, Spain: Wolfe Publishing Ltd

Pennak W. Robert. 1953. Fresh-Water Invertebrates of the United States. New York (NY): The Ronald Press Company

Thorp H. James, Covich P. Alan. 2010. Ecology and Classification of North American Freshwater Invertebrates. Third Edition. San Diego (CA): Academic Press

McFarland, Kenneth [Internet] Botany 111 Fall 2013. [cited ADD DATE]. Available from http://botany1112013.blogspot.com/

Week 3 Observation

            This week, I made my third observation on October 29,2013.On Friday October 25, 2013 Dr. MacFarland added one Beta food pellet to our micro aquariums. The food pellet info is as follows: “Atison’s Betta Food 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%.”Since the addition of the food pellet I have seen increased numbers of previously viewed organisms as well as an increase in types of organisms.

           

            This week I made new observations on the Cyclops species such as increased numbers and different life stages. One of the first things I noticed when I began viewing my aquarium was a dead Cyclops on the tank bottom as well as a Cyclops with egg sacs on its sides (Rainis and Russel 1996). I have found that the Cyclops is a copepod, or a crustacean like organism often identified as a water flea. The Cyclops is of concern because it can be an intermediate host to guiniea-worm.

 

Figure 2: Dero, bottom end
Picture by: David Colvin      

Figure 1: Dead Cyclops
Picture by: David Colvin

            A new observation that I made this week was a Dero, which is an annelid similar to the Chaetogaster I viewed the previous week. Its bottom end identifies the Dero, which encases itself in a sheath and moves around by extending its head out of the sheath and using hair like appendages to pull the sheath back up around itself.

             This week I was able to observe and identify numerous Meridon circulare diatoms, which were stationary and located along the leaves of the Utricularia gibba. These diatoms were fan shaped, green, indicating presence of chlorophyll, and had visible septae (Prescott G.W. 1964). I also saw some diatoms that were very similar to the Meridon circulare but were not complete fan shapes.

Figure 3: Meridon circularePhoto by: David Colvin

Figure 4: Paramecium bursaria
Photo by: David Colvin

            Another new observation I made this week was that of the Paramecium burasaria. This organism is anywhere from 90-150um in length and has an oval shape with a slight indention groove where the mouth can be seen, giving it a similar shape to a foot. The organism is slowly moving around in the water; it seems as though it just floats around in the water rather than moving itself much. The Paramecium bursaria has visible cilia, is green with zoochlorellae, and contains numerous pink circles (Bick H 1972).  

Figure 4: Meridon circulare
Photo by: David Colvin

            Another organism species that I discovered in my aquarium was the Bodo saltans species. This organism is very small even on high-powered objectives. The Bodo is clear and has the appearance of a bubble moving around in the tank. The observed the organisms in what seemed to be small colonies found throughout the aquarium mostly around the food pellet remains and the leaves of the plants (Patterson D.J. 1996)Bodo move around very quickly, but all stay in the same area. This helped to identify because the Bodo saltans are known to attach themselves to substrate with a long, recurrent flagellum, and feed on suspended particles (Patterson D.J. 1996).

Bibliography

Rainis G. Kenneth; Russel J. Bruce. 1996. Guide to Microlife. Danbury (CT): A Division of Grolier Publishing

Patterson D.J. 1996. Free-Living Freshwater Protozoa. Barcelona, Spain: Wolfe Publishing Ltd

Bick H. 1972. Ciliated Protozoa. Switzerland: World Health Organization

Prescott G.W. 1964. The Fresh-Water Algae. Dubuque, Iowa: WM.C. Brown Company Publishers