Micro Aquarium: Day 29

So, this is the last week of my MicroAquarium project. Things are grim. I don't if this is supposed to happen, or if my tank was just poisoned, but It seems like my aquarium is getting less and less populated. I expected it to be teeming with life by the end of the 5 weeks, but diversity seems to be shrinking constantly. The only new things I found in my tank this week were *Paramecium Bursaria, (and there were many of them) and a **Philidina sp. Rotifer, which resembled the anchored, spinning sifter organisms I observed in my first week--but larger. And this one was hiding in a dirt cocoon type structure. It reminded me of the anemones of the ocean, that come out of their tubes, but when any movement or sign of danger occurs, the shoot back inside. When I tapped the glass, this Philidina sp. Rotifer would shoot back into its cocoon thing, then slowly creep back out and start sifting food particles again.
Speaking of cocoons, my insect larva friend is back. I don't know if its the same one, but it looks like it. However this time, the majority of his body is wrapped in a cocoon/shell/tube thing that looks like the dirt/sand particles from the tank webbed together. I don't know is this is an instinctive defense mechanism for blending in with the dirt when fish swim by, or if he's actually building a cocoon to transform in, but since he has no use for wings underwater, i don't think that's the case.
Lastly, the Closterium sp. have decreased a bit in population, some of them are several times longer than before, and a few are dead. There are much less of the Turbellaria and I found no amoebas. However, the regular Rotifers are still swarming, they seem to be the dominating species of the tank, because they are always prevalent. I found only one Cyclops, and it was dead. There were also a few Diatoms, which are slow moving yellow rods. I have seen them in previous weeks but only now photographed and identified them.
Now for the photos:

The large brown thing is the cocoon structure it was hiding in. The picture is
blurry because it was moving a lot, but you can see the "teeth" at the head of
this organism that look like they're spinning. Those are the food sifters.

Here is the insect larva, and you can see the cocoon structure around it. At
first I thought the larva was hatching from the cocoon but couldn't get out,
until he turned inside out of the cocoon and I realized he had full control and
mobility, and he was carrying the cocoon around with him by choice.

This is a diatom, a quite boring organism. According the Dr.
McFarland, there should be more detail of interesting-looking
structure inside the diatom, but I was having a hard time with my microscope.

MicroAquarium: Day 22

So, my aquarium is not growing very much. There are a lot more Closterium everywhere, but many are dead. They are missing a lot of their green and are not moving, and there are tiny organisms buzzing around them looking like they're feeding off them. The rotifers are swarming, they need to be killed because they're everywhere, and the cyclops have disappeared  or are hiding very well now. I also couldn't find my little insect larvae friend, I was hoping he would be a butterfly by now, but I bet the rotifers overwhelmed him and ate him up like pirahnas. There are still many of the turbellaria things, and more of those organisms related to them (that are more serpentine and grow much longer.) I also found quite a bit more amoebas than last time, I don't know if they're more populated this time, or if I just know what to look for, but I found several, and they seemed to like to be in pairs or groups. Some of them also had slight colored tints like red or blue to them--quite lovely.

Anyway, nothing too new this week, hopefully my insect is in a cocoon transforming into something beautiful. Until next week,

That is all.

MicroAquarium: Day 16

I will first begin by saying that last Friday (day 11) one Beta Food Pellet was added to 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%. 

Anyway, not many changes have occured since my last observation. I've found a few new species, and some of the older ones are much larger now, like the serpent-like ones. Some of them have grown over 10 times their length since my last observation. I've also discovered some insect larva. One of them was easy to watch (however it is a shadow for most of the video because I didn't not know how to adjust my light aperture), but the other was hiding in the dirt and moved super fast, so it was not possible to get  photo or video.

I discovered a type of protist characterized by the constriction ring right along its center, and the floating crystals in the tips of both ends of the organism. They float around very slowly, and are probably autotrophic because of their bright green color and the fact that other organisms seemed to feed off of them when they died. * They are in the genus Closterium, but I could not identify the exact species.

I also identified those cricket-like quick darting organisms. They are called Cyclops, according to Dr. McFarland, and I only managed to get a photo of one because it was not moving much--either dying or tired. 

 Also, according to Dr. McFarland, the little tadpole-like creatures that were everywhere are Rotifers, and the worm-like ones are Turbellaria. I do not know if the worm-like Turbellaria are the same thing as the long serpentine ones, just not fully grown. They might be related but not the same...

And lastly, I found amoeba. These were difficult to spot because they are transparent, but I happened to stumble across a pair. You can see little particles floating around in them, and the amoeba just look like spilled liquid that changes form. I think amoeba either like to be together, or they reproduce asexually and their offspring are just a piece of the parent amoeba that is broken off and grows independently, because in my entire MicroAquarium I only found two of them and they just happened to be right next to eachother.

 

You can see all the little particles moving throughout the amoebas body.

Anyway. Hope to see more next week. That's all folks!

  

*Rainis, Kenneth G.; Russell, Bruce J. Guide To Microlife. Danbury, CT. Franklin Watts Publishing, 1996. P. 136.