Week 1

Upon observing my MicroAquarium for the first time since initiation, I have already noted several organisms.

Two Actinosphaeria protists were present in the bottom third (Patterson 1992). They were colorless, stationary, and had filaments protruding from all sides in a star burst shape.


One Paramecium was located in the bottom third moving in a constant slow rate. Paramecia are dark brown ciliated protists with a wide oral groove for drawing in food particles (Patterson 1992).

One Pinnularia, a diatom protist, was seen stationary in the bottom third. It had a brown-green color and was rod-shaped.

Two amoebae were seen along the bottom third of the aquarium. They moved in a very slow fashion and at one point, I watched one specimen wrap around some plant material and snap off a particle. After two hours of studying these, I finally guessed that these were Succamoeba lucens (Lynn and Small 1985). I will need to study these after more development to conclude their species.

Several Cyclops, including one skeleton, were traveling along the very bottom and the sides of the aquarium. These are brown colored multicellular animals that move in quick bursts (Rainis and Russell 1996).

Two Spirogyra colonies were seen in the bottom third. These are green algae organisms with a double-helix formation (Tiffany and Britton 1952).

At least two Perididium willei were present throughout the aquarium. They are circular organisms with a grove in the center and two flagella, one around the groove and one at the end, which account for its circular movement (Forest 1954).

At least ten Rhopalodia gibba were present in the aquarium, most of them in the bottom third. These are green-brown color rod-shaped diatoms with a bulge in the center (Smith 1933).

There has been much activity in the bottom half of the aquarium with decreasing activity upward.

Citations

Patterson. Free-Living Freshwater Protozoa. p169. Fig. 394, 395. 1992. John Wiley & Sons, Inc: New York.
Patterson. Free-Living Freshwater Protozoa. p133. Fig. 286. 1992. John Wiley & Sons, Inc: New York.
Lynn, Small. 1985. in Illustrated Guide to the Protozoa. Lee, Hunter, Bovee. p171. Fig. 35. Allen Press, Inc. 629 pgs.
Rainis, Russell. 1996. Guide to Microlife. p204. Fig. 96. 287 pgs.
Tiffany, Britton. The Algae of Illinois. p143. 1952. University of Chicago Press: Chicago.
Forest. 1954. Handbook of Algae. Univerity of Tennessee Press. p345, Fig. 521. 467 pgs.
Smith. 1933. Fresh-Water Algae of the United States. McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc. p503. Fig. 416. 719 pgs.