Wk 2 Observation, Oct 30th

On Friday October 26th, one Beta Food Pellet was inserted into my Microaquarium. "Atison's Betta Food" is made by Ocean Nutrition, Aqua Pet Americas, 3528 West 500 South, Salt Lake City, UT 84104. The ingredients are: fish meal, wheat flower, soy meal, krill meal, minerals, vitamins and preservatives. The nutritional analysis is: crude protein 36%, crude fat 4.5%, crude fiber 3.5%, moisture 8%, and ash 15%.
Overall, the activity in the microaquarium continued to increase over that of the previous week.  Under the microscope, and with Dr. McFarland's assistance, I identified three new organisms and identified the "bubble-like" organisms seen in weeks one and two.

The first new organism identified was the amoeba shown in the picture below, which is the larger of the two I saw.  I observed movement inside the amoeba and was told by Dr. McFarland that the amoeba was digesting the food it had eaten.  The amoebas appeared to be stationary. 
The euchlanis rotifer, in the picture with the amoeba and also in the picture to the right, was identified last week.  They remain numerous and float about randomly at a medium speed.

 

 

 

 

Today was the first appearance of the philodina rotifer, seen in this picture above.  It was identified in the book Rotifers.  I saw only three of these, and each one was still except for the movement of it's mouth as it ate small particles floating in the water.

During the setup of the aquarium, and again last week, the organism in the picture below had remained too small to identify.  With Dr. McFarland's help, the "bubble-like" organism was identified as cyclidia.  These ciliates are the smallest, and remain the most numerous organism in the aquarium.  They moved in a jumping start/stop fashion and were rarely still.  The cilia are longer at one end than at the other.

 

 

A third new organism, Rotaria Neptuna, was identified with the help of Dr. McFarland and the book Rotifers.   Unfortunately, I am unable to download the video I made of this organism eating small particles.  The multicellular organism has a ring of cilia around its mouth, and its jaws looked to be spinning in circles as it ate; movement inside the organism is quite visible.  Then, for no apparent reason, it quickly and briefly withdrew, only to extend itself back into the picture and begin eating again.  I will make another attempt to download the video next week. 

 

I did see the organisms from last week, spirogyra, planaria, nematodes, tachyosoma, and the vorticella.  Their numbers remain basically unchanged.  There were many more filaments of oscillatoria present.

 

I saw no dead organisms, and the middle of the aquarium was the most active.