My little tank's water levels were dreadfully low, and I worried at first that perhaps my cyclops and aeolosoma may have gotten caught out of the water and died. When I checked them out under the microscope, however, I found an aeolosoma wriggling about just fine, and eventually my cyclops was back to darting around, as well. There are definitely less amoeba now, and one of the bladders on the carnivorous plant, Utricularia gibba, is an oddly deep bluish-purple shade. I wonder if that means that that bladder died? When I tried to look up information on the matter, I mostly ended up sifting through lots of different types of the plant with different colored bladders, so that wasn't very helpful.
My cyclops did not want to stay still at all, but he seems to be about the same size as last week. I couldn't find more than one aeolosoma, though I'm not sure if the others have died or are just hiding from me. I can't really scour every last crevice of the tank for them, so it's very possible that I just didn't see them, but they certainly seem to be less in number, regardless. The very low water levels may be partially at fault for this. There is definitely less amoeba than there were at the start of the project, but I wouldn't necessarily say much less than last week.
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Week 3
I didn't get to stay long because I came in late. I have work pretty much all the time if I'm out of class, so it's hard to find times to wiggle in to come to visit my little aquarium.
Anyway, so I went in to check out my critters, and I feel like my cyclops got bigger! It may just be my imagination, though. It's possible the added nutrients from the food pellet that was added on the 22nd did help him out a bit, right? Though it didn't seem to be in the water for very long, the food pellet. I don't have any pictures from last week of my cyclops, so there's no real way to judge. Today, however, I did get a neat video of him. I was recording a video of an aeolosoma in my tank, when I caught him on camera, then chased him a bit for a good shot of him. At Dr. McFarland's suggestion, I split the videos so that I have one of my aeolosoma, and one of my cyclops.
Aeolosoma:
Cyclops:
From checking out a few of the other blogs by other students, I'm a little sad about how little diversity there is in my tank! I only seem to have my one cyclops, a few aeolosoma, and lots of amoeba. Speaking of amoeba, there seems to be less of them now. Perhaps the carnivorous Utricularia gibba has been eating them? They do seem to wiggle on over its pods often when I examine them. I assume that's what's going on, anyway.
That's about all I have today.
Anyway, so I went in to check out my critters, and I feel like my cyclops got bigger! It may just be my imagination, though. It's possible the added nutrients from the food pellet that was added on the 22nd did help him out a bit, right? Though it didn't seem to be in the water for very long, the food pellet. I don't have any pictures from last week of my cyclops, so there's no real way to judge. Today, however, I did get a neat video of him. I was recording a video of an aeolosoma in my tank, when I caught him on camera, then chased him a bit for a good shot of him. At Dr. McFarland's suggestion, I split the videos so that I have one of my aeolosoma, and one of my cyclops.
Aeolosoma:
Cyclops:
From checking out a few of the other blogs by other students, I'm a little sad about how little diversity there is in my tank! I only seem to have my one cyclops, a few aeolosoma, and lots of amoeba. Speaking of amoeba, there seems to be less of them now. Perhaps the carnivorous Utricularia gibba has been eating them? They do seem to wiggle on over its pods often when I examine them. I assume that's what's going on, anyway.
That's about all I have today.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Week 2
I missed week 1 due to issues with work and scheduling, but during week 2 I was ready to check out my little guys in my tank.
First of all, on October 22nd, a beta food pellet was added to the tank. More information on the pellet itself can be found at the bottom of this post!
I got to examine my little darter guy much more today. When I first put my tank under the microscope, I got a good look at him, as he was staying still. I suppose he woke up soon after, though and started darting again. When I got my turn at the camera-microscopes, I was able to take a couple pictures of a neat worm-like guy I found. He's an aeolosoma, and Dr. McFarland helped me identify it. He also helped me figure out what my little darter guy was: a cyclops!
Here are a couple pictures I took of my aeolosoma with the microscope cameras:
There were also amoebas in my tank, but that's about it. I mostly just focused on tracking my cyclops during this visit, mainly because I wanted a good picture of it. He never did stay still, though! Drats.
When checking out the food pellet that was in the tank, I only saw a few amoeba checking it out, which would be a little weird, except it was just barely touching the water! I think the pellet didn't go very far into the water when it was added, and then some of the water dried and the water level lowered a bit, putting the pellet mostly out of reach of my tank's little organisms. Oh well. I suppose it won't have a very strong impact on the daily life of my tank, as it isn't really within reach anymore. Perhaps with the little bit of added nutrients my organisms will be happier, anyway.
Additional identifying information about my cyclops and aeolosoma was taken from:
Smith, Douglas. Pennak's Freshwater Invertebrates of the United States, 4 ed. John Wiley & Sons, Inc: 2001.
Beta food pellet information: "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%.
First of all, on October 22nd, a beta food pellet was added to the tank. More information on the pellet itself can be found at the bottom of this post!
I got to examine my little darter guy much more today. When I first put my tank under the microscope, I got a good look at him, as he was staying still. I suppose he woke up soon after, though and started darting again. When I got my turn at the camera-microscopes, I was able to take a couple pictures of a neat worm-like guy I found. He's an aeolosoma, and Dr. McFarland helped me identify it. He also helped me figure out what my little darter guy was: a cyclops!
Here are a couple pictures I took of my aeolosoma with the microscope cameras:
There were also amoebas in my tank, but that's about it. I mostly just focused on tracking my cyclops during this visit, mainly because I wanted a good picture of it. He never did stay still, though! Drats.
When checking out the food pellet that was in the tank, I only saw a few amoeba checking it out, which would be a little weird, except it was just barely touching the water! I think the pellet didn't go very far into the water when it was added, and then some of the water dried and the water level lowered a bit, putting the pellet mostly out of reach of my tank's little organisms. Oh well. I suppose it won't have a very strong impact on the daily life of my tank, as it isn't really within reach anymore. Perhaps with the little bit of added nutrients my organisms will be happier, anyway.
Additional identifying information about my cyclops and aeolosoma was taken from:
Smith, Douglas. Pennak's Freshwater Invertebrates of the United States, 4 ed. John Wiley & Sons, Inc: 2001.
Beta food pellet information: "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%.
Friday, October 15, 2010
Starting our aquariums
During Wednesday's botany lab, we set up our MicroAquariums and chose our aquarium's water source. I chose water from a spring in Dean's Woods, because I thought it was a really lovely place when I visited it during last year's field trip. The Botany blog (URL at the end of this post) describes the water source as, "Spring Creek off Woodson Dr. running through Dean's Woods Road frontage., Knox Co. Tennessee. Partial shade exposure. Tennessee River water Shed N35 55.274 W083 56.888 848 ft. 10/10/2010." We also placed into the aquarium a bit of two plants.
The two plants we added (these descriptions also from the Botany blog):
Plant A . Fontinalis sp. Moss. Collection from: Natural spring. at Carters Mill Park, Carter Mill Road, Knox Co. TN. Partial shade exposure. N36 01.168 W83 42.832. 10/10/2010
Plant B. Utricularia gibba L. Flowering plant. A carnivous plant. Original material from south shore of Spain Lake (N 35o55 12.35" W088o20' 47.00), Camp Bella Air Rd. East of Sparta Tn. in White Co. and grown in water tanks outside of greenhouse at Hesler Biology Building. The University of Tennessee. Knox Co. Knoxville TN.
In other words, one plant to feed the micro organisms in our aquarium, and a plant to eat them. The carnivorous plant has little "bladders" along it that apparently eat the squiggly things squirming about our tanks. Very exciting stuff.
"Plant B" (carnivorous, flowering plant with the bladders) on the right, "Plant A" (moss) on the left. Unfortunately, my little darter friend (mentioned below) isn't visible in this pic, that I can tell.
When I was examining my aquarium, I noticed a little green thing darting about, though it was far too quick for me to get a good look at it under the microscope. From what little I did see of it, it was light green, and extremely small. It reminded me of an itty-bitty tadpole.
Source:
http://botany1112010.blogspot.com/
The two plants we added (these descriptions also from the Botany blog):
Plant A . Fontinalis sp. Moss. Collection from: Natural spring. at Carters Mill Park, Carter Mill Road, Knox Co. TN. Partial shade exposure. N36 01.168 W83 42.832. 10/10/2010
Plant B. Utricularia gibba L. Flowering plant. A carnivous plant. Original material from south shore of Spain Lake (N 35o55 12.35" W088o20' 47.00), Camp Bella Air Rd. East of Sparta Tn. in White Co. and grown in water tanks outside of greenhouse at Hesler Biology Building. The University of Tennessee. Knox Co. Knoxville TN.
In other words, one plant to feed the micro organisms in our aquarium, and a plant to eat them. The carnivorous plant has little "bladders" along it that apparently eat the squiggly things squirming about our tanks. Very exciting stuff.
"Plant B" (carnivorous, flowering plant with the bladders) on the right, "Plant A" (moss) on the left. Unfortunately, my little darter friend (mentioned below) isn't visible in this pic, that I can tell.
Source:
http://botany1112010.blogspot.com/
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