Week 3: Observing the Aquarium

A food pellet was added to our aquarium this week. The pellet is "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%.

When I observed my microaquarium today, I immediately noticed that there seemed to be several smaller organisms swimming around, probably due to the food pellet. It appeared as if there were more in there than usual, or perhaps I was just now able to notice them.

I also noticed that there were several organisms burrowing in or around the dirt. I noticed that these round organisms had small hair-like structures on their body. Thus, I was able to deduce that these organisms were more flagella. They each had two hairs, and one of them is used to propel the organisms around (Patterson 54, 1996).

Flagella:

There was a large organism floating around in the free space of water. It would sometimes attach itself to one of the plants before quickly springing itself off into the water again. It seemed to have cilia on it and a small corona (Smith). From this, I was told that this organism was a type of rotifer named Euchlaris Dilatata. These rotifers have a posterior “foot” and two “tails” jutting out of it and are also classified as semi diagrammatic.

Rotifer (Euchlaris Dilatata):

Along with the rotifer, I noticed an organism swimming extremely fast through the water. I had a hard time following it with the microscope, but managed to get a few pictures. This organism is called a tachysoma. This particular tachysoma has membranelles that are in typical collar-and-lapel arrangement, and it has a visible contractile vacuole present (Patterson 125, 1996; Fig. 265). By looking at the picture, hair-like structures, called the dorsal bristles, of the organisms are very clear.

Tachysoma:

Multiple Tachysoma:

Week 2: Observing the Aquarium

Today, I looked over my microaquarium at around 12. In it, I was able to notice that there were already several organisms floating around in the water. I was able to then take some pictures of these organisms and classify them.

The first one I noticed was a water mite. Water mites have segmented bodies with a fused head and thorax (Rainis and Russell 239, 1996). This particular mite was a dark brown and was hiding itself amongst the plants. The mite had four pairs of legs.

I was also able to find a rather large duflugia. This particular duflugia, which can be seen in the picture below, looks dark brown and has flagella surrounding it. It has a round body and the pseudopodia in it are lobose (Patterson 96, 1996; Fig. 187). Duflugia contain pieces that are able to accumulate other small structures within it. These are called “grit”. Notice the strands coming out of the sides. These are flagella that have attached to the duflugia.

Duflugia:

As mentioned before, there are several flagella that are either surrounding, or are attached to the duflugia. The most noticeable ones are the ansionema. These flagella carry a whipping flagella strand, which is easy to notice through the microscope because of its constant motion (Patterson 54, 1996; Fig. 78). These particular flagella also have a distinct hook. By looking at the picture, it is also easy to notice the red eye sockets of the flagella.

Ansionema:

An organism called vorticella also attaches itself to the two plants inside of the microaquariam. These creatures cause currents with their lips and contain cilia (Patterson 113, 1996; Fig. 234). Food is obtained by them by passing it through its buccal cavity. When the microaquarium is tapped, the vorticella will quickly retreat back, and close its lips that were once open. This serves as defense mechanism against predators.

Vorticella:

Lastly, I was able to find a rather lively nemotode. This nemotode was shaped much like that of a worm and was fighting to pull itself off of another vorticella. Nemotodes contain phasmids, or sense organs, that can detect anthropod pests (Rainis and Russell 231-232, 1996). They also release bacteria.

Nemotode (and Vorticella):

Bibliography Information

Patterson, David J. Free-living Freshwater Protozoa: a Colour Guide. New York: Wiley, 1996. Print.

Pennak, Robert W. Fresh-water Invertebrates of the United States: Protozoa to Mollusca. New York: Wiley, 1989. Print.

Rainis, Kenneth G., and Bruce J. Russell. A Guide to Microlife. New York: Franklin Watts, 1996. Print.

Smith, Douglas Grant. Pennak's Freshwater Invertebrates of the United States: Porifera to Crustacea. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2001. Print.

Week 1: Setting up the Project

Today in biology, we set up our plant aquarium to start our term project. For my experiment, I filled the aquarium up with French Broad River, Seven Islands Wildlife Refuge, Kelly Lane , Knox Co. Tennessee. Partial shade exposure French Broad River Water Shed N35 56.742 W83 41.628 841 ft 10/9/2011 Cladophora sp. alga in family Cladophoraceae.
I have already noticed worm-like organisms swimming around in the water. Several mosquito larva are attached to plant B. Several worm-like organisms are moving around in the plant, as well as in the mud. There is also a circular organism that occasionally swims rapidly over the dirt. Plant A shows relatively no sign of activity so far.
Over the span of the next four weeks, I will be checking on the plant at least every Tuesday.