10/19/10

My first observation of the week for my microaquarium was made without a microscope. I noticed upon picking up my aquarium that bubbles had formed. Some tiny little creature in there is producing gas. It took me a few minutes to find my first organism. I noticed that there was a sharp decrease in the amount of aquatic inhabitants.

Spirogyra sp. was a species of algae living in my microaquarium.

Canter-Lund, Hilda, and John W. Lund. Freshwater Algae Their Microscopic World Explored. Bristol,       England: Biopress Limited, 1995. Print. 57


Stylaria sp. was the second organism I found. It lives in freshwater sources.

 *Note the hair on the body of the Stylaria sp.

*The snout on the head of the Stylaria is a distinctive feature of this species.

Ward, H.B., G.C. Whipple, Ed. W.T. Edmonson. 1918. Fresh Water Biology Second Edition. John Wiley        & Sons, Inc. New York. pp. 639

Setting up

On October 13th we created MicroAquariums. I used water and soil samples from Fountain City Park, then color coded my aquarium so I could identify it later. After placing the water in the aquarium, I added 2 different plant and viewed it under the microscope.  I chose this water source because it is very close to my home and I observe children playing in it regularly.
There were not any organisms that I was able to view floating in the water, but as I viewed the area around the plants I began to see the little creatures :) . Altogether I viewed three different types of organisms. One looked like a worm, the next was a round sort of thing with a small tail and the third was a cluster of mushroom looking specimens that were attached to one of the plants.