Final Post

Yesterday was the last day in the Lab looking at my MicroAquarium.  I found numerous organisms that I had seen before and one or two new organisms. 

 

 



 

These two pictures above are of another Centropyxis (Patterson 1996 pg. 95 fig184), the cool thing is that this one was in motion when I caught it.  The thing you see in front of it is pulling it along as it moves.  The other Centropyxis that I saw were all still.  I saw many Centropyxis in the dirt at the bottom of the MicroAquarium, there were a lot of them down there. 

 

This is called Colechaeta solute (Prescott 1978 pg. 105).  It is a green algae.  I thought it was interesting. 

 

This is an unnamed Cyanobacteria that I thought looked cool, but could not find it in any books and Dr. McFarland said that he didn't know what it was either. 

 

This is a Limnias (Pennak 1989 pg. 218).  The little cilia you can see at the top spin around and make it look like a two saw blades spinning around.  It was REALLY cool!

 

This is an unnamed rotifer.  It was very active and I got a good picture, so I thought I'd include it. 

 

There were a lot more of the Cyanobacteria Oscillatoria in the edge of the MicroAquarium down in the dirt.  They were everywhere. 

 

The MicroAquarium project has been really cool and taught me about all different types of microorganisms I didn't know existed. 

3rd observation

Yesterday I went and spent a couple more hours in the lab looking at micro-organisms.  I saw a lot of repeat organisms that I have seen before.  A few organisms in particular that I recognized, I saw many more Oscillatoria, Tachysoma, and Centropyxis.  These organisms have multiplied.  The Oscillatoria have grown significantly in length as well.  Now I will post some more pictures and videos of some more organisms I have found. 

 

 

This is a Tachysoma sp.  (Patterson 1996 pg. 125 fig. 265).  I posted a video of one of these last week, but this is a pretty good picture of one so I decided to post it too. 

 

 

This is an Aeolosoma sp. (Pennak 1989 pg. 290 fig. 335).  It looks like a worm which is what it is.  I think it's really cool because it is practically transparent.  It moves around a lot. 

 

 

This is an Epalxella sp. (Patterson 1996 pg. 141 fig. 311).  This is a little organism that just spins around and goes all over the place. 

 

 

This is a Euchlanis sp. (Pennak 1996 pg. 182 fig. 14).  It is a type of rotifer, it looks really cool and moves around really quickly. 

 

 

This is a Navicula sp. (Vinyard 1977 pg. 112-113 fig. 157b).  It is part of the Diatom family.  The Diatoms come in all different shapes and sizes this being one of many. 

 

 

This is a Cyanobacteria called an Oscillatoria sp. (Bellinger and Sigee 2010 pg. 167 fig. 4.27).  It is really cool because it slides around and is this really cool green-blue color.  Since we have started the MicroAquariums I have noticed that this have grown much larger in size from the first observation. 

 

 

This is a Stentor sp. (Patterson 1996 pg. 106-107 fig. 213-216).  It is really cool because it has these little cilia that spin around the edges of the opening. 

 

 

This is a Vorticella sp. (Patterson 1996 pg. 113-114 fig. 232-236).  If you watch this video it is really cool because it is actually twins, or a Vorticella that is reproducing, so it is two Vorticella on one stem. 

 

This is all I have for today folks.  I have enjoyed watching the organisms in my MicroAquarium grow in number and size. 

References

 

References

 

 

• McFarland, Kenneth [Internet] Botany 111 Fall 2014. [cited 19 Oct. 2014]. Available from http://botany1112014.blogspot.com/\
• Belliner EG, Sigee DC.  2010.  Freshwater Algae: Identification and Use as Bioindicators.  John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 
• Patterson DJ. 1996.  Free Living Freshwater Protozoa: A Color Guide.  Manson Publishing Ltd. 
• Vinyard WC.  1977.  Diatoms of North America.  Mad River Press Inc. 
• Pennak RW. 1989.  Freshwater Invertebrates of the United States: Protozoa to Mollusca.  3rd ed.  John Wiley and Sons, Ltd. 
• Lund HC, Lund JWG.  1995.  Freshwater Algae: Their Microscopic World Explored.  Biopress Ltd.
• Raninis KG, Russell BJ.  1996.  Guide to Microlife.  Franklin Watts Ltd. 

2nd Observation

I went to the lab last Wednesday and spent a solid 4 hours in the lab looking at all the micro-organisms and taking pictures and videos and identifying them all with the books and lots of Dr. McFarland's help, then finally editing all the pictures to be able to use in the blog.  At the beginning of last week Dr. McFarland put one piece of beta fish food into each MicroAquarium to help encourage the micro-organisms to grow.  I could tell that there were many more micro-organisms in the MicroAquarium this time I view it.  Shown below are some pictures and videos so you can see what I got to see through the microscope lens. 

This is an Actinosphaerium sp. (Patterson 1996 pg. 169 fig. 394-395).  The Actinosphaerium was not moving in any way, but I thought it was interesting and took a picture of it.  In this picture Dr. McFarland and I could not quite tell what was going on, at first we thought that it was just two Actinosphaerium that were possibly dividing, then with a closer look it almost looks like there are the two dividing in the middle at the same time they are dividing again, if that makes any sense.  You can also see there is something dark in the middle, I'm not sure if that is something that the two organisms are trying to eat or if it's just something that is lying on top or under the Actinosphaerium in the MicroAquarium. 

 

 

This is an Amoeba sp. (Patterson 1996 pg. 99 fig. 194-197).  In this video you can see how the Amoeba scoots itself along as its mood of transportation. 

 

 

This is an Anisoonema sp. (Patterson 1996 pg. 53-54 fig. 78).  This organism has two very long flagella that protrude on either end of to help it move around the MicroAquarium. 

 

 

In this picture we are looking at the large brown mass in the middle.  This organism is a Centropyxis sp. (Patterson 1996 pg. 95 fig. 184).  I thought this one was very interesting, although there was no movement by the organism when I saw this shot I knew there was something significant so I took a picture and identified it.

 

 

This organism is a Chaetontus sp. (Pennak 1989 pg. 165 fig. 7). 

 

 

This is a Euplotes sp. (Patterson 1996 pg. 124 fig. 260)  This organism reminds me very much of the Tachysoma that I will show later.

 

 

This is Merismopedia sp. (Lund 1995 pg. 198-199 fig. 378-379).  This is actually a type of cyanobacteria.  It is very small, even when magnified to the maximum magnification on the microscopes. 

 

This is a Nematoda (Raninis 1996 pg. 231 fig. 110).  The Nematoda is a very active micro-organism.  It flails around randomly and looks crazy.  It is also a much larger organism than the Merismopedia.  Once I found the Nematoda in the microscope I could look very closely at the MicroAquarium at the place where the microscope is aimed and faintly see the NemaToda flailing around. 

 

 

This is the Tachysoma sp. (Patterson 1996 pg. 125 fig. 265) that I mentioned earlier.  It looks like a little animal just crawling around the MicroAquarium, it moves very quickly and never stays still. 

 

 

There is something that I did see in the MicroAquarium that I was wondering what it was and so I took some pictures and asked Dr. McFarland, I was very interested in what it was.  When I asked him he said it was dead and that I could delete the picture and I was very disappointed because I thought I had found something cool. 

 

 

I saw a lot of very interesting organisms in my MicroAquarium this past week and can defiantly tell that the number of organisms is increasing.  I can't wait to see how much everything has grown from the first observation the day we made them to the final observation in a few more weeks.  

First Observation

Today I went and observed my MicroAquarium.  I saw many organisms swimming around in the water.  I saw many Nematodas swimming around, they move in a violent jerking or whipping motion and are constantly whipping back and forth.  They are long, skinny, dark worm looking organisms. 

I also saw one really cool looking worm that was somewhat transparent.  It was staying in one general area and looked like it was attached to one of the plants (ferns) inside my MicroAquarium.  It was wiggling around, slower than the Nematoda, but staying in the same area.  Dr. McFarland suggested it was an Aeolosoma and I confirmed this with the book "Fresh Water Invertebrates of the US, Protozoa to Mollusca." 

I also saw a Tachysoma.  This is a small little organism that was constantly moving around, it looked like it was crawling more than anything.  It was significantly smaller than the other organisms I saw and hard to keep on the screen. 

What I thought was really cool was that when you find something in the microscope if you looked really closely at the MicroAquarium on the table of the microscope you could sometimes see the organism moving around in the water.  I saw this especially with the Nematoda, I could see it violently jerking around in the water. 

Well, That's all for now folks!

Brad Nellis

The first day of the MicroAquarium

The first day we set up our MicroAquariums, I was really interested to see how this was going to work.  The steps to setting up the MicroAquarium are as follows. 

1. Get yourself one MicroAquarium with a base and a lid.
2. Color code and initial your MicroAquarium with the appropriate color dots according to the key Dr. McFarland posted on the board.
3. Fill your MicroAquarium with water from one of the sources of your own choosing.
1. Make sure to get a little bit of the dirt from the bottom.
2. Get a little bit of the water just above the surface of the dirt.
3. Get a little bit of water just at the surface of the water. 
4. Include a little piece of each of the plants that Dr. McFarland provided.
5. Place in the appropriate box for your lab section.

The water source that I used to fill my MicroAquarium was the 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 10/12/2014. 

The two plant specimens we put into our MicroAquarium were:

1. Amblestegium varium (Hedwig) Lindberg. Moss.
   Collection from: Natural spring. at Carters Mill Park, Carter Mill Road, Knox Co. TN. Partial shade exposure. N36 01.168 W83 42.832. 10/12/2014
2. Utricularia gibba L. Flowering plant. A
   carnivorous 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.
   10/12/2014

To observe the MicroAquarium you have to remove the base and the lid and carefully lay it over on its side to rest on the microscope.  The water will not fall out because of surface tension. 

My observations on the first day were a few nematodes that I saw swimming around, Dr. McFarland confirmed this for me.  They were swimming into the dirt at the bottom as if they were trying to hid.  This was the only moving thing I saw the first day, I did notice the cell structure of the plants that I put in the MicroAquarium.  I hope to see more living organisms swimming around in the next few weeks as we observe our MicroAquariums.