Week 5 Observations

I found that a vast majority of the microorganisms in my microaquarium were dying off.  This is most likely due to the lack of food available after the pellet was eaten.  I have gotten some good photos of some of the microorganisms.  I took pictures of a cladocerans (water flea), lecane, thacysoma, and an ostracoda (seed shrimp).


According to the book Guide to Microlife by Kenneth G. Reinis and Bruce J. Russel the above image is a cladoceran or in other words a water flea.

 
According to the book Guide to Microlife by Kenneth G. Reinis and Bruce J. Russel the organism above is a lecane.


According to the book Free-Living Freshwater Protozoa by DJ Patterson the organism pictured above is a tachysoma.



According to the book Guide to Microlife by Kenneth G. Reinis and Bruce J. Russel the above organism is an ostracoda or in other words a seed shrimp.

Week 4 Observations

This was a good week of observations.  I found a few other curious looking microorganisms in my microaquarium, but the one that intrigued  me the most was a Cyclops.  I did get a few pictures of the cyclops and a few other microorganisms, but they are not ready for posting yet and will come in next weeks blog.  I also observed the microorganisms feeding on the beta fish pellet that we put in last week and found that to be quite interesting.  They were really tearing that pellet apart.  That's all for this week and I will have pictures up during next weeks blog post.

Week 3 Observations

During this week I saw a paramecium in my microaquarium.  The beta fish pellet that was put into the microaquarium last week on Friday October 29, 2010 has been partially eaten by the microorganisms in the microaquarium.  More information about the beta fish pellet are as follows:  "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%.