First Observations

Phil Bagsby

Dr. McFarland

Botany 111 003

10 November 2014



This week was the first week that I made observations after the initial set up of our MicroAquariums. The changes that had taken place sense the first day were immense. There was lots of activity in my aquarium and I believe a lot of that was due to the food pellet that was placed inside during the first week. On October 24, 2014 a food pellet bought from "Atison's Betta Food" made by Ocean Nutrition, Aqua Pet Americas, at 3528 West 500 South, Salt Lake City, UT 84104 was provided to the living organisms within. The pellets consisted of fist meal, wheat flower, soy meal, krill meal, minerals, vitamins and other preservatives.The analysis breakdown is 38% crude protein, 4.5% crude fat, 3.5% crude fiber, 8% moisture, and 15% ash (McFarland 2014).


Since this was my first observation, the growth of organisms in my aquarium was in full force and I came across six new organisms. The organisms that I found were as follows:

The first organism that I came across was Closterium sp. which is chlorophyll green and stationary. I only found one of these organisms and was found around the middle of the MicroAquarium (Prescott   1993 p. 71 fig. 121a).

The second was an egg shaped organism known as Cyclidium sp. which appeared to be single cellular and is a non green organism. I observed many of these and could be found moving about in a relatively calm manor all over the aquarium (Patterson 2013 p. 149 fig. 331).

The next organism that I observed was Euglena sp. which was a relatively stationary organism that had a very active tail. I observed several Euglena sp. in my aquarium. I believe this is a multicellular, non green organism that was found near the bottom of the aquarium (Patterson 2013 p. 20 fig. 120).

Halteria sp. was the next multicellular, chlorophyll green organism that I discovered. This was a very quick moving organism that was hard to capture a good photo of. Several Halteria sp. were found near the bottom on the aquarium (Patterson 2013 p. 139 fig. 305).

Lecan sp. or Rotifer was the next organism that I came across. There were many of these; however, most had died. The Rotifer is a chlorophyll green, multicellular organism that was, for the most part, stationary and could be found throughout the aquarium (Pennak 1953 p. 212 fig. 212).

The last organism was Nematoda sp. and was the most interesting of the six to watch. I only found one of these non green, multicellular organisms. It's movements were very sporadic and moved similar to that of a snake. I watched this organism make its way throughout the entire aquarium (Pennak 1989 p. 215 fig. 133).

Bibliography:

Pennak, Robert. 1989. Fresh-Water Invertebrates of the United States. 3rd ed. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.  

Pennak, Robert.  1953. Fresh-Water Invertebrates of the United States. 1st ed. The Ronald Press Company.  

Patterson D.J. 1996.  Free-Living Freshwater Protozoa. 1st ed.  Manson Publishing.  

McFarland, Kenneth [Internet] Botany 111 Fall 2014. [cited November 10, 2014]. Available from http://botany1112014.blogspot.com/ 

Prescott, G. W. 1993. The Fresh Water Algae. 1st ed. WM. C. Brown Company Publishers.