Captains Log, Day 5

The last entry. I was fairly unimpressed again with the initial viewing of my microaquarium again this week. Other than a growth in the amount of algae that was able to be seen, I wasn't able to find many organisms. Even the simple single celled organisms from last week were almost non existent now. I spent a long time searching until I was able to find this creature.

This little guy, is another rotifer named Philodina. Philodina has a large jaw, with at first glance seemed to bee rotating and gyrating teeth, as well as a gullet, which is used to crush the bacteria and smaller organisms that it feeds on. (Raven, 2010)

Initially, I was "tripping balls" when I saw this creature, just imagining that scene from the 1990's movie Tremors, where that one guy was trying to hide on top of the tire, and the Graboid was like WRONG MOVE SON.

Another organism which was prevalent in more than one area of this MicroAquarium was the Actinophrys. Actinophrys is a small, unicellular organism, with arms protuding all the way through and out of its body, that help it consume other flagellates and  protozoa. (Patterson, 2009)

Overall, this MicroAquarium has proven, I am sorry to say, less than a perfect specimen for all of the thousands of micro organism that exist in freshwater. However, this experiment was of great personal significance to me, as it helped me feel closer to the world of science and microbiology than I ever have before.

This is your captain, Andrew J. Hogan, signing off. God speed, gentleman.

Captains Log, Day 4

After almost a week of no internet, I have finally gotten on to update my blog, and I have recently realized that these posts are weekly, so instead of putting "Day 4," I should be putting "Week 4." But it seems we are past the point of no return, and I must continue on into the heart of darkness.

This week, I began my observations towards the bottom of the aquarium. At first glance I couldnt see any motion, but as I zoomed into the highest magnification, I could see there was again TONS of activity inside of my MicroAquarium. In addition to more of the little  rotifer critters from last week, there were tons of little single celled braj's swimming vigorously along the bottom, all clumped together.

These are little unicellular ciliate protozoa named paramecium. They are very prominent in freshwater sources and in scum, which seems more than appropriate for water pulled out of a river and left sitting for a few weeks. Although it is hard to see, these little guys are heterotrophs. They have a small tongue, and feed on smaller bacteria. (Raven, 2010)

Captains Log, Day 3

This weeks observations were pretty heavily dominated by the appearance of one little guy in particular:

The same little guy from last week, the Rotifer.

As I began to view the Micro Aquarium through the x4 lens, I was able to see this Rotifer, as well as another one near by him, very clearly. They were moving back and fourth, seemingly anchored in place. As a I zoomed in closer with the microscope I saw that they were in fact anchored by a tale onto a piece of the plant.

I also noticed that he was moving back and fourth, and Ken told me that these little brajs eat other organism, using their large mandibles to pull particular organic detritus, dead bacteria, algae, and protozoans own into their stomach-like-organels.

As I continued to search around the Aquarium, I found numerous of these little Rotifers, feeding on other organisms. They were clearly the largest and most abundant organism I was able to find.