References

Forest, Hand Book of Alga. University of Tennessee. 1954. Pg. 385. Print

McFarland, Ken., An inquiry into the dynamic microorganisms in our enviornment Botany 111 2011.

                 http://botany1112011.blogspot.com/. 11/22/2011.Web-Media

Patterson, David J., and Stuart Hedley.  Free-living Freshwater Protozoa: a Colour Guide.           

                 London: Wolfe, 1992. Pg.113. Print

Raven, Peter H., Ray Franklin. Evert, and Susan E. Eichhorn. Biology of Plants. New York:

            W.H. Freeman, 1999. 31. Print.

 

Week Five

This week I found a Trachysome sp. It was not mobile at the time of the picture, however, the organism seemed to have a moving mouth-part. This movement was in a circular, wave-like motion. The organism was photographed in the middle layer of the aquarium as opposed to the bottom layer unlike the organisms mentioned in the previous posts. The moving part can be seen on the right of the photo center organism.

Week Four

There are more Vorticella living in the bottom layer of the aquarium. The number of mobile organisms has increased greatly from the first observation. However, It doesn't seem that any new organisms have  appeared. The alga Oscillatoria that began to spread in my aquarium in Week Three is now a large habitat component of the aqarium.

Week Three Observation

I identified this Vorticella. It is a single cell organism, I beleive it is the subspecies sessilina. This was done using The Ciliated Protozoa: Second Edition by John O. Corliss. Information was found on page 144.  I added an additional 16 pellets just to see what would happen in the following weeks. I had to add more water form my sample due to the evaporation. There are many organisms in my aquarium, more so than any other week.
I had a little trouble transfering my videos but those should be added here shortly.
There was also some green, hair-like alga that will be photographed and identified tomorrow. The alga can be seen here.

Week Two Observation

An organism identified as Gastrotrich sp. can be seen here in the video. There are more organisms present than last week. We added three beta food pellets. these food pellets were: 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%.
I added more of (type of alga) because the original began to die.

Aquarium Set-up

I set up my micro aquarium by filling it with water from the bottom 1/3, middle 1/3 and top 1/3 of my sample. The sample that I used came from the Holston River. The sample was taken by Dr. Ken Mcfarland and was obtained here: Holston River along John Sevier Hwy under I 40 Bridge Partial shade exposure Holston River water Shed N36 00.527 W83 49.549 823 ft 10/9/2011.

My color code was dark blue, light blue and dark blue.

My initial observation found living organisms at the bottom of the aquarium. These were mostly in the "mud."

These organisms will be identified and followed over the next four weeks.
The two plants added to the MicroAquarium were:  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
and
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.