Week #4 MicroAquarium™ Observation

Water source: The water I chose for my MicroAquarium™ was drawn from the Holston River along John Sevier Hwy under I 40 Bridge Partial shade exposure Holston River water Shed N36 00.527 W83 49.549 823 ft 10/9/2011. (McFarland, 2012)

This week in lab, just like the last few weeks, we surveyed our MicroAquarium™ under a microscope to see what changes had taken place in the aquarium over the course of the week. We searched for different organisms and recorded our finds. After we were done, we filled the MicroAquarium™ with a small amount of water to replace what had evaporated.

Two weeks ago a food pellet was put in each of the MicroAquariums™ to increase the growth and production rate of the organisms in the aquariums. The type of food pellet used was, "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%. (McFarland, 2012).

Observations:

There appeared to be an increase in the number of organisms and the amount of activity in my MicroAquarium™ this week. Although the increase was slight enough to suggest that the population growth in the aquarium may be leveling out, perhaps on its way to rapid ecological decline.

Although I saw many different organisms through the microscope this week, most of them were organisms that I had already found and recorded in my blogs. I did manage to obtain a decent picture of one new organism (Fig.1), and a video of a very fast moving flagellate with two flagella (Video 1). 

Fig. 1) Mayorella sp. (Patterson, 1998).  

The above figure is a photo of an amoeba of the Mayorella species. Amoeba are generally shapeless and are unicellular organisms. They feed on plankton and diatoms in the surrounding water and digest them with enzymes present in the amoeba. (Patterson, 1998). 

 Video 1) Flagellate (Patterson, 1998)

The above video is a video of a flagellate I found in my aquarium. While it is unknown exactly what kind of flagellate it is, it is an interesting organism in that it has two flagella and moves with very spastic movements. Flagellates are generally eukaryotic organisms with micro-tubule supported flagella. (Patterson, 1998). 

Bibliography: 

1. McFarland K. 2012. Botany 111 Fall. [internet]. September 2012. Available from: http://botany1112012.blogspot.com/ 

2. Patterson, D.J. (1998) Free-living freshwater protozoa: a colour guide: protozoa to mollusca: New York: Wiley