4th viewing

My final viewing was pretty dense. Most of the organisms in my aquarium have died off, and i have no new organsims that i haven't already seen. Diatoms seemed to still be at high number throughout the tank still, and there was a large increase in dead algae. One interesting ting i noticed was a number of dead ostracods that had collectednear some of the plant structures. All in all, most of the life in my aqurium has ceased.

3rd Viewing

The amount of organsims in my aquarium is increasing rapidly! The food pellet is completly dissolved now and all the organisms seem to be concentrated around the plant life and my leaflet piece.

One thing I have noticed a signifigant increase in were the diatoms. Round diatoms and the ice cubed shaped ones. Here are some pics.

There seems to be some die off of some creatures throughout my aquarium also. Here is an excellent pic of an algae called pleurotaenium. The first pic shows a live one, and the second pic shows a dead one surrounded by diatoms.

Another new organism noticed reminded me alot of the halteria with the cilia coming off the front and back of it. This one is called a tachysoma.

Strangely though i located an organsim i could not identify. It looked a lot like a rotifer, but lacked a tail. It also looked like a paramecia, but the distinct point at its rear threw it off. Here it is by a diatom structure.

2nd Viewing

This week I noticed that the food pellet had been added. As you can imagine there was a large collection of organisms around the pellet. Some things, like rotifers, I already recognized, but there were some new creatures I hadn’t already noticed looming around the food pellet.

Picture 1: I saw many colonies of epistylis collecting. They looked like bells with long shoots connected. Here is a picture.

Picture 2: I saw this guy called a Halteria swimming about, and he instantly caught my eye because of the array of cilia coming off him.

Two things i couldn't snap a picture of were an astracod and a large water snail. The astracod was just sitting near some of the plant life almost hidden. The water snail intrigued me with its rapid movement as it seemed to just swim around and eat everything.

Day 2 Oct 21

Today I began to take notice of the many organisms throughout the aquarium and tried to identify some of them. Here, in order, they are.

1. Nematodes- First thing I saw, and had an accordion like movement. Eventually I noticed more of these all throughout the pond, but the first was spotted around the bottom muck layer.
2. Rotifers- Their slow bumper car movement came to my attention early. I actually saw two different kinds. A big one that I witnessed eating pieces of the various plants, and a smaller one with a moving hair like tail.
3. Closterium- I saw tons of these algae everywhere.
4.Copepod-by far my favorite thing to see. I actually had to chase him down to get a good look at him. Here's a picture of one.
5.Stentor- single celled organsim that looks a lor like a Bugle potato chip. Had a slight wobbling motion.
6.Cladoceran(Water Flea)- largest organsim I saw, and was eating bits of green plant.
7. Filamentous Algae- Witnessed everywhere throughtout, and often was a snack for these organsims.

Most of the living things I saw were not in the bottom muck layer, but the middle portions around the green plants, and the leaflet I added. Most of the organisms I saw in the muck were very tiny. Next week, I will try to identify some more things, and give an update on my status.

Day 1

Today I set up the project, using water from the #6 source and adding both plant a &b. In the middle of my aquarium I added a leaflet piece from the pond source. After observing for a while I started to notice all kinds of creatures both multi-cellular and chlorophyll based.