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
Glowchick,
ReplyDeleteInclude the site details of the water source and the two plants you put into your microaquarium.
Ken McFarland