Week One

10-24-2012

I observed my MicroAquarium this week after letting the water and plants sit for seven days.  I placed the slide under the microscope and found quite a few interesting things.

Most of the movement I saw was in the middle of the tank and the organisms seemed to prefer the fern.

I found three moving creatures that were round and mostly clear.  They had pincers that they appeared to be using to eat the fern.  I found two more of these that were completely still at the bottom of the tank, presumably dead, and one that looked almost exactly the same except it was half the size of the others.  I also found two very tiny round swimming organisms.

Perhaps the most interesting thing that I found was a large organism that looked, to my mind, like a rat.  It was in a hurry and it had two tails.  It sped around the tank as if it were looking for something (presumably food) but it never seemed to find it.

Hopefully next week I will be able to identify these organisms.

Introduction

My MicroAquarium!

10-24-2012

Here's what's inside...

Water!  From Meads Quarry.

Meads Quarry, Island Home Ave, Knox Co. Tennessee Partial shade exposure Rock Quarry N35 57.162 W83 51.960 880 10/9/2011 (McFarland 2012)

(A link to Meads Quarry's website!)

 Amblystegium 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 (McFarland 2012)

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. (McFarland 2012)

THE PROCEDURE:

To make our MicroAquariums we first obtained a glass tank, a stand holder and a lid.  Then we color coded them according to the directions for identification.

Next, using a pipet we extracted water from a container on the lab bench.  I chose the container with water from Meads Quarry.  We filled our tanks with this water.

Then, we put both plants (Utricularia gibba L. and Amblystegium sp.) into the tank.

Finally we observed our aquariums under a microscope.  Unfortunately, I did not see any moving organisms at this time.