November 7th, 4th Observation

This was my fourth time viewing the micro-aquarium. As I took it apart, I noticed the water level had dropped about a third, so I filled it up with filtered water provided by Professor McFarland.
I put it under the microscope and began looking around. I immediately noticed an increase in the amount of organisms from the previous observations. Not only were there a multitude of live organisms but there were also many dead ones scattered throughout the water. One of these organisms was identified as a seed shrimp by Professor McFarland, (Patterson, 1996).



This is a picture of the Seed Shrimp identified by Professor McFarland.

 I also noticed a dead organism that turned out to be the carcus of a Seed Shrimp, here is a picture of it located to the right.

I also noticed more of the Vorticella I talked about in the previous post. They seem to be much more numerous and could be located on almost every plant surface.

As I was observing I noticed an organism with two spinning disks that seemed to filter the water and tiny microbes with it. It was identified as Philodina rotifer sp. by Professor McFarland, (Patterson, 1996).

On the picture to the right is a diatom that was roaming around slowly, notice around it the numerous dead organisms and cellular components.

 

The aquarium is truly thriving and I am interested to see what organisms I will encounter next time.