Week 3 Observations!

This week, nothing was added to the microaquariums. To my surprise however, my micro aquarium's activity decreased tremendously. All of the almost hundreds of rotifers and single celled organisms vanished, and only the remnants of plant material and multiple root structures filled the vacant void were bustling life had once filled. Despite the clear decrease in activity and organism population I was able to observe a few select organisms. I did come across one lone rotifer, swimming about in the open, a couple Litionotus very close to the soil bed, and a lone stentor unattached to any surface. In the absence of life however, I noticed a slight increase in the population of euplotes! I saw at least 10 different individuals, most hanging about near the soil bed. And finally, in the abscence of other critters, I discovered a new species inside my microaquarium that I had not previously seen as well as one other organism that I had seen on my first observation but had yet to classify. They are as follows:

 (Patterson 54)
This little critter is a single celled organism with two flagella located at both ends of the the cell. This is the organism that I observed on week one, but hadn't seen in week two. The reason I waited to classify is because of my poor picture quality on week one, and as you can see, I acquired a pretty good picture this week :D

(Pennak 164-165)
This is the critter that I discovered this week, and I was actually pretty excited about! This one is by far, in my opinion, one of the most interesting critters I have found thus far. I saw a total of two individuals during my observations this week, and both were located among the vegetation or free floating/ swimming among the empty areas.

(Patterson 103)
These are three amoebae I found last week that I hadn't had the time to classify and post. I thought it very interesting that I found three in one area. These critters I have found sliding about in my microaquarium every week, week two being the peak of their population. I only came across one individual this week.



Though this week my aquarium had little life, I have hopes that next week the population may increase at least a little. My hope comes from the increase in plant life within the microaquarium. I found multiple strains of algae growing this week that may attract various individuals and provide food for the populations to grow. Next week I will be finishing my classifications of organisms that I have found over the course of these three weeks, as well a few organisms that I may find next week, and posting my final notes about the micro aquarium. I can't wait to see what I find next week!