Sources

Pennak Robert W. 1989. Fresh Water Invertebrates of the United States: Protozoa to Mollusca. 3rd ed. Wiley-Interscience Publication.


This is one of three sources I will posting. As soon as I can get into the lab I will be able to Record the information of the books. Their titles are A Color Guide by DJ Patterson and Handbook of Algae

Its been a while...

On Friday October 21, 2011 "one" Beta Food Pellet was inserted into my microaquarium.

"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%

Since the last time I observed my Microaquarium, nearly half of the water has evaporated from the tank. Fortunately the Microaquarium is teeming with life. Dr. McFarland explained that due to the air getting drier in our classroom, much of the water is evaporating out of the tank, besides the fact that there is a lid. Within my tank there is a lot of algea and cyanobacteria growth. The Copepod or cyclops has grown immensely since the last time I saw him. He is now clearly visible to the naked eye as a little dot in my tank. I do say "he" becasue it is a him from the lack of an egg sack. Unfortunately, he will not find a mate because he is the only one in my tank :'(.  In addition to my cyclops, we see the presence of Nematodes, Vorticellas, Litonotus, Epalxis, and Difflugia. There is even a Mite within my tank, that looks pretty scary if you ask me.

The Nematodes were pretty interesting because they are in a constant whip-like motion, and are found down in the mud of Microaquarium. After reading  a little about them, from Fresh-Water Invertebrates of the United States: Protozoa to Mollusca by Robert W. Pennak, I learned that not much is known about the Nematoda phyllum. Even among all this life, there is still death. According to Dr. McFarland there was a dying Desma in my tank.

This little guy sucked up all those little bubble things like a cyclone

This the organism that whips around (this is a nice action shot)

Scary Little Mite

Notice the little hook on the top!

Looks like a brown little jelly fish

Named Sophie for Copepod, before I knew it was a guy :/

 

Boooring!

These are the picture I took in under the microscope and will be adding the books I got them from on Thursday because I had to wait so long to get a computer and then Dr. McFarland had to vote by 8 o'clock. Maybe I will even add more photos. More to come

A Picture of My Aquarium

Observation on October 25

.... Unfortunately not much life in my Microaquarium at this stage. From the naked eye I could see one small organism moving around (he took some time to find under the microscope). I though a found something really cool, it appeared like ice crystals in the microaquarium, nut ended up only being something on the glass. Using posters I saw in the room, I was able to identify the little critter as a Cyclops or Copepod. There also appeared to be a Daphnia. Both of these are Micro Invertebrates and the Daphnia resembles a little shrimp while the Copepod in similar in shape to a Horseshoe Crab.

Unlike the mud of other Microaquariums, the mud within my tank did not have muck life except the growth of little shoot of what appears to be grass. It the top of my tank there is some light brown algea or fungus forming near the surface and under the telescope you can see little round organism darting around the mass. When I looked into Linda Stalling's telescope, her microaquarium was teeming with life that could was so big it could not be entirely seen under the 10X lens. Hopefully mine will get there, but until then my Copepod and Daphnia will have to do.

P.S. - I would have pictures, but the people at the computers took forever

I created my Microaquarium!

On  October 12th, our Botany Lab section created Micro aquariums. Within these aquariums were two plants and water we were able to choose from different sources. In my Microaquarium I used water from French Broad River, Seven Islands Wildlife Refuge. Below is a picture.

2. French Broad River, Seven Islands Wildlife Refuge, Kelly Lane , Knox Co. Tennessee. Partial shade exposure French Broad River Water Shed N35 56.742 W83 41.628 841 ft 10/9/2011 Cladophora sp. alga in family Cladophoraceae

 

The plants in my Microaquarium were:

 

Plant A . Amblestegium sp. Moss. Collection from: Natural spring. at Carters Mill Park, Carter Mill Road, Knox Co. TN. Partial shade exposure. N36 01.168 W83 42.832. 10/9/2011

Plant B. Utricularia gibba L. Flowering plant. A carnivous plant. Original material from south shore of Spain Lake (N 35o55 12.35" W088o20' 47.00), Camp Bella Air Rd. East of Sparta Tn. in White Co. and grown in water tanks outside of greenhouse at Hesler Biology Building. The University of Tennessee. Knox Co. Knoxville TN.

 

Set up Procedure:  

1. Obtained a MicroAquarium (Glass stand, holder, and lid). 

2. Using the colored dots available, as a class, we color coded the tank (Lab section, lab bench, and seat number) so we wouldn'd get them mixed up. 

3. Using a pipet we extracted water from the samples provided and filled our aquariums almost to the brim with water, using water from the bottom middle and top of the source. 

4. Last, we placed out aquariums on their stands and added Plants A and B in with our water

 

Hopefully I will have pictures up soon of my Microaquarium since my first look under the microscope, I was unable to find any lifeforms.