Observation 5: new arrival

After many weeks of finding the same things eating the same things this observation was very different. While many things that had been noticed before were gone like diatoms and the ever popular rotifers this week all that could be found was the Cyclops (Pennak 1989).  This organism should have shown up weeks ago. If it did then they hid well. The observed cyclops were very slow and not very interested in running from the camera as is the norm. The eggs for these organisms have been present in the sample since day one but had only recently hatched. The life cycle of a Cyclops is a short one so these could not have hatched very long before the observation ( Pennak 1989).

Cyclops are identified by their tails and other flagella. This was just classified as a basic Cyclops. this organism moves using the antenna like structures at its front by pulsing them through the water. This was one of many in the sample during the observation 5.

Observation 5:vorticella video



Bibliography

Canter-Lund Hilda. 1995. Freshwater Algae Their Microscopic World Explored. Biopress LImited

Donner Josef.1966.Rotofiers. London (NY): Fredrick Warne & Co.LTD

Patterson DJ.1992. Free-Living Freshwater Protozoa: a color guide. Washington DC: ASM Press

Pennak Robert W.1989. Fresh-Water Invertibrates of The United States: protozoa to mollusca. Boulder (CO): Universtiy of Colorado

Throp James H. 2010. Ecology & Classification of North American Freshwater Invertebrates. Third Edition. London (UK): Academic Press

Patrick Ruth.1966. The Diatoms of the United States. Volume 1. Philadelphia (PA): The Academy of National Science of Philadelphia

Forest Herman S.1954. Handbook of  Algae. Knoxville (TN): The University of Tennessee Press

Rainis Kenneth G. 1996. Guide to Microlife ( Science Life and Environmental Science): Franklin Watts


McFarland, Kenneth [Internet] Botany 111 Fall 2013. [cited 11/25/2013]. Available from http://botany1112013.blogspot.com/

Observation 4 Time for visuals!

Organisms Observed:

This little guy is the first of the semester! Hard to find and hard to believe he is still around at this point in the closed environment. Believe it or not this is a member of the Kingdom: Animal and the Phylum: Tardigrada (Rainis 1996). This little guy is hard to capture in video but we gave it a try. If you look closely this little fella has paw like extensions which he swings and "paws" the water with.

 

Now we move onto some very bright algae. This aglae is easy to notice and name. Its commonly called blue grean algae which as you can see in the provided picture is not hard to gather. Its scientific name however is Coccochloris Stagnina (Forest 1954). 

The color does not end there! DIATOMS! In the last observation a few dead diatoms were found. This time however many were found alive and to be very colorful. The highest population of diatoms in this observation was Navicula (Patrick 1966). seen here

After all the excitement we revisit a few previously observed subjects. Protozoa: Anisomea (Patterson 1992), Colpidium (Patterson 1992), and Litonotus (Patterson 1992).
As we noted in the last Observation Anisomea have two different flagella. One for propultion and one that drags behind it and can some times be used to jolt forward. The shorter of the two in this picture is the propulsion flagella that spirals to pull the protozoa forward.

 The Litonotus moves with its slender worm like body. Very fast and hard to capture.

the last two protozoa have multiple flagella that are used to move the organism. 

 

Observation 3 : PROTOZOA

One grain of beta food has been added to the aquarium  two days before this observation.
Observation: PROTOZOA (single cell)
4 types:
Lacrymaria
Anisonema
Euplotes
Vorticella

after looking around for about 20 min. I found a large grouping of protozoa near the beta food grain. The only that were clear enough to id were the four mentioned above described here:


Lacrymaria: spindle shaped cells with a long highly mobile neck supporting a rounded mouth at the end (Patterson 1992).

Anisonema: have two flagella that vary in size
                  anterior flagella: the shorter of the two that beats at a normal pace(Patterson 1992).
                  recurrent flagella: the longer of the two that trails along the "ground" , can jerk the cell back and
                                             forth(Patterson 1992).

 Euplotes:  characteristic form of flagella present for movement. (Patterson 1992).

Vorticella Campula: Flagella used for propultion but mostly for anchor (Thorp 2010)