October 30th Observations

On October 24, 2014 Dr. McFarland added a Beta Food Pellet into my micro-aquarium.  The food pellet added was  "'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%" (McFarland, 2014).

The addition of the food pellet seems to have increased the activity of the organisms within my micro-aquarium.  It also seems that the number of organisms has increased.  It is possible that I was only able to observe more because of their increased activity due to the addition of food into their environment, but most likely both are the case.

Vagus

I observed three separate Annelids of at least two different species.  The only one I was able to capture images of for identification was the Vagus (Pennak, fig. 11G) seen above.  The image on the left is of the posterior, which was most useful in identification, while the right image is of the head.  I found this Vagus weeving through the moss, but the other Annelids were observed throughout the micro-aquarium.

Limnias

It was difficult not to come across Rotifers during my observations yesterday.  They were roaming freely throughout the micro-aquarium in vast quantities.  One that I found particularly interesting was the Limnias (Donner, fig. 72) seen above.  The Limnias pictured lives in a tube attached to the bladderwort, but should be careful as this is a carnivorous plant that has probably been making a living on trapping and devouring his relatives.  At the bottom of the picture you can see its cilia which move extremely rapidly and resemble a chainsaw.  The Limnias uses the motion of the cilia to gather food.  (Donner, 1966)

Euplotes

Another organism I observed was a Euplotes (Patterson, fig. 260) of the phylum Ciliophora.  Although this is the only one I observed personally, I estimate there are probably others within the micro-aquarium.  In the image above you can see the cirri protruding from the narrow ends of its oval shaped body.  The Euplotes uses its cirri to move through its environment and when viewed from the side, it actually appears to be walking. 

Further Observations

During the first two weeks of observations of my micro-aquarium the organisms seem to be becoming more numerous as well as more active.  I attribute this mainly to the addition of the food pellet, but also to the fact that they have now adapted to their new environment.  I am going to try and identify new organisms during each of my observations in order to get an idea of the variety of organisms that can be found in my water source.