Observation Week #4

Upon observing my microaquarium, i noticed a drastic increase in the population of organisms, most notably the blue-green algae. These were at the top, middle, and bottom layer of the aquarium. I also found a few Euglena, which are green unicellular protozoa which have a flagella for locomotion. They are also photosynthetic. They have a red eye that helps them to detect so that they may swim towards a light source. The Euglena tend to be more of in the middle of the aquarium. Another interesting observation I mad was that there seemed to be more dead organisms, especially a few at the bottom. There also seemed to be alot of what i guess was bacteria, little dots everywhere. Also my worm-like Spirostomum was nowhere to be found this week, but he could have been hiding under the soil as that is where it likes to be. There were also alot of rod-shaped diatoms.

Observation #1 10.24.08

Friday October 24 i made my first in-depth observation and analysis of the life forms existing in my microaquarium. There were many green single-celled circular organisms quickly moving around in the water that i would assume to be green algae. There was also a larger worm-like organisim that was contracting very fast that i concluded to most likely be a Spirostomum.

Setting up the Microaquarium 10.14.08

My microaquarium was set up on Tuesday, Oct. 14. I used water sample #2, water from the French Broad River, and added both plant A, a moss, and plant B, a flowering plant, to the microaquarium. Soil and sediments from said river made up the bottom layer of the microaquarium. After setting up my microaquarium, i observed it under the microscope and saw various life forms ranging from small, circular single-celled organisms, to larger worm-like creatures.