Day 13. Tues Oct 25, 2011

Figure 1. Philodina (Smith 2001, Fig. 7.11).

It has been 13 days sense I last saw my aquarium. One food pellet was added on the 21st (The food pellet information is listed below). At first, I didn't see much of anything in my aquarium. Not even anything near the food pellet. Once I got closer to the sediment I began to see a few organisms. Most of them were too small for me to identify, but one organism was very obvious. I identified it as Philodina, which is a Rotifer. Rotifers are omnivores, meaning they eat virtually anything (Smith 2001). This organism was very interesting. For a while it stayed in the same spot and kept moving its jaws back and forth like it was chomping on something, but then suddenly swam away. I tried to follow it with the microscope but I couldn't keep up, and I never found it again.

Figure 2. Philodina's movement (Smith 2001, Fig. 7.11).

Sources:
Smith, D.G. 2001. Pennak's Freshwater Invertebrates: Porifera to Crustacea. 4th ed. Canada: John Wiley and Sons. 139 p. Fig. 7.11.

Beta Food Ingredients: "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%

Day 1. Wed Oct 12, 2011

Today we made our micro aquariums! I chose the water from the plastic bird bath mainly because it was behind me and I didn't feel like traveling to obtain water from another source. Lazy, I know. We added two species of plant so that organisms could have something to gather around or eat. They were Amblestegium (Plant A) and Utricularia gibba (Plant B). I looked at my aquarium under the microscope for a little while, but my water didn't contain many organisms, so I stopped a little earlier than others did. I did see what looked like a nematode and a few black and white specs that seemed to be swimming, and Ken showed me some sort of bladder on one of the sample plants that we added. I'm really excited to see what kinds of changes will occur over the course of this experiment. I hope more organisms will inhabit my aquarium because it's just so neat to watch them swim around!

Water Source: Plastic Bird Bath pool . 0.9 mile from Fountain City Pond on Fountain Rd. Knox Co. Knoxville TN Partial shade exposure N 36o02.249' W083o55.999' 1121 ft 10/9/2011

Plant samples: Plant A . Amblestegium 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. 10/9/2011

                      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