November 13th Observations

Rotifer egg case

The first organism I observed this week was a rotifer egg case (Pennak, pg 184, fig 19).  Most species of rotifers can reproduce sexually or asexually when there are not males present.  In a lot of species the males are born sexually fertile and never develop a digestive system so they don't live very long.  The females can live from a couple of days up to about 2 weeks.  The eggs can either hatch very quickly or become resting eggs and wait until the environmental conditions improve.  (Pennak)

 

Amoeba sp

The next organism I observed was a single celled Amoeba (Patterson, fig 195).  The Amoeba alters its' shape as it moves with the use of pseudopods.  This was the first time I observed an Amoeba.

 Vorticella sp

The final organism I observed this week, and the final organism I identified in my micro-aquarium, was a protozoa of the Genus Vorticella sp (Patterson, fig 232-236).  This one was attached by its' stalk to the bladderwort, but their were several throughout the micro-aquarium.    

Final Notes

Throughout my four weeks of observations I was able to identify nine different organisms.  I observed several others as well, but was not able to capture images of them or identify them.  Upon completion I will post a copy of my Report in its' entirety to this blog.  I leave you with a final image of my micro-aquarium at the end of the last day of observations.