Bibliography

McFarland, Kenneth [Internet] Botany 111 Fall 2013. [cited October 31,3013]. Available 

from http://botany1112013.blogspot.com/

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

David Walker and Wim van Egmond. Pond Life Identification Kit. [Internet] 2000 [cited November 12, 2013]. Available from http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/index.html?http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/pond/index.html

Week 5

The last viewing of the MicroAquarium was very interesting. It appeared that the Prokaryotes had essentially completely taken over. I witnessed many of them at the top of the Aquarium and a few in the middle. The bottom of the Aquarium looked like a desolate wasteland. I found four shells of dead Diatoms, a small living diatom, and a nematode that I'm pretty sure was dead. i suspect that the Euglenoids were still staying alive by using the Fontinalis sp. moss as a food source, because I assumed that most of the other food sources had been depleted and that was the only healthy looking plant left.

Week 4

This week I found it difficult to find anything at all in my MicroAquarium. However, I did see quite a few Euglenoids and Diatoms swimming about. I thought it was strange that the life forms in the Aquarium reverted to these simple, single-celled organisms. The nematode, which had previously been the most common organism to observe, was nowhere to be seen. I couldn't find a single one.
The other thing I noticed was unhealthy appearance of the plants in my Aquarium. Both the Utricularia gabba and the Amblestegium varium Lindberg were very brown and almost shriveled up. However, I did notice some algae lingering around them. The Fontinalis sp. moss was the only plant which seemed to still be somewhat thriving. Many of the Euglenoids were found swimming around this moss.

Week 3

The addition of the Beta Pellet (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%. ) created a chaotic fight for food in my MicroAquarium. Surrounded the pellet was a diverse array of organisms, all trying to get food. Among the organisms here were:

• Protozoa (what appeared to be Euglenoids (Egmond, 2000))
• A new find called Colpidium
• possibly bacteria
• a few Diatoms were noticeable

I also noticed that the organisms farther away from the food pellet were much less mobile. The most prevalent of these were diatoms, but I also saw two nematodes.

Week 2

Algae:

• It appears that the algae has grown a bit in quantity from the first observation. It is less concentrated around the plants and is now spreading even to the open water areas, which seems to be attracting the protozoa.

Nematodes:

• The number of nematodes seems to have drastically increased even from the last observation. Some even appear to have grown in size from last week, though I don't have an accurate method of proving that. I could not find the giant nematode that I witnessed last time, so I assume it either died or was hiding in the dirt. I also witnessed a nematode eating a very small mite or crustacean, indicating the cause for the decrease in mites that I found.

Mites:

• This week I only found one very small mite, which as I stated previously, was eaten by a fairly large nematode. I assume either the mites have gone into hiding in the dirt or they have begun to be eaten off by the nematodes.

Protozoa:

• I witnessed an increase in the number of protozoa this week. I counted five which I believe to be separate. All but one of them were swimming around the algae, specifically around the Fontinalis moss. The other was swimming in clear water in the middle of the tank.

Week 1

Water Source:

• The water source of my MicroAquarium is the Tennessee River. Specifically from the boat ramp across the river from the sewage plant on Neyland Drive, Knox County, Knoxville, Tennessee. The area from which the water was removed received full sun exposure and received water shed from the French Broad and Holston Rivers.

Plants put into the MicroAquarium:

• Utricularia gibba
• Fontinalis sp. moss
• Amblestegium varium (Hedwig) lindberg

Stationary Organisms:

• The only stationary organisms that I saw during the initial viewing of the Aquarium was a large amount of algae on each of the plants put into the water.
• The algae clearly had chlorophyll as most of it was a dark green color.

Moving Organisms:

• Mites/ Crustaceans
• I saw three Mites swimming near the Utricularia gibba plant and the dirt at the bottom of my MicroAquarium. They appeared to be multicellular, as they were composed of different organ-like structures that I saw moving through the clear skin.
• No chlorophyll
• The Mites moved in a very quick manner, almost seeming to jump to various points around the Aquarium.
• Nematodes
• I witnessed one very large and many smaller nematodes.
• The large one stayed near the Fontinalis moss in the middle of the Aquarium.
• It moved in a fast yet controlled manner, moving rapidly a short distance then pausing before moving again.
• It appeared to be multicellular due to size, but I wasn't able to make clear distinctions between cells, so it could possibly be unicellular.
• No chlorophyll
• The smaller ones were primarily in or near the dirt at the bottom of the Aquarium.
• These moved in a very rapid, twitching motion, contorting themselves to look like an "S"
• They appeared to be unicellular.
• No chlorophyll
• Protozoa
• I saw three protozoa swimming through the Aquarium, both staying towards the higher middle area of the tank, away from plants. They were essentially round organisms that appeared colorful on the inside and had many flagella on the outside of their body to allow them to swim.
• They moved fairly quickly yet smoothly, due to the flagella that allows them to swim around.
• I believe they were unicellular.
• I don't believe they contain any chlorophyll.