Zygnemataceae
Amoeba
Rotifer
Difflugia

11/2/09: This was my first time viewing the micro-aquarium since placing a food pellet in it, so I had an expectation that there would be manyh more creatures in it. This was also my first time using the microscope hooked up to the video recorder.
The most amazing thing I believe I saw was the water around the food pellet. This was a free all-you-can-eat buffet surrounded by at 50 feeding vorticella. The vorticella are cytoplasmic blobs. Around their front they have cilia quickly lashing about pushing water and particles inside its opening and helping to scrape off bacteria. You can see envaculated particles inside of it.
There were also multiple amoebas, other large slow-moving blob. Its organelles or particles move about within it through cyclosis, where microtubules reach out and attach to things and others retract as it slowly slides along.
Somewhat similar were difflugia. These little fellas vary in size because they are essentially trash balls that pick up debris along the way. They feel with plasmodial blobs which absorbs particles and moves it as well.
Trachiosomas were present and abundent, mostly around the dirt, which are somewhat thin and legnthy creatures that chew water and spit it out their side for propulsion.
Large colonial sacks remained as well.
There were also many different types of rotifers, this being what I described as a mouse-like creature on the first observation. There were smaller rounder one, to much longer hot-dog shaped ones that all seemed to have flagella. Here is one with cilia at its mouth, and chewing mechanism slightly behind that, and two flagella at the other end.
The hardest creature to get a picture of was the quick moving halteria, which is simply put a small and quirmy little blob.
Also observed was what looked to be the alga spyrogyra, but is apparently a relative called zygnemia. Whereas spyrogyra was spiral chloroplasts, these have star-shaped ones, two per cell.

10/23/09: 2nd observation of micro-aquarium. When I came into the lab I noticed that the top had been knocked off of my aquarium, and as a result there was slightly less water in it. One of the first observations made is that there were many dead organisms around the dirt at the bottom of container. This seems understandable after being reminded to feed my unit before I leave. This small whip-like creatures that I had observed before seemed to have passed on as well, although they were the most abundant last time. The variety seemed to have lessened, but some of the creatures that remained had possibly grown in number.
I quickly saw a large roundish creature consuming something. It had flapping cilia pushing things into its mouth and it would take a break to digest every now and again. It vibrated brilliantly and had a very thick flagella. From the viewed angle it seemed to be consuming a plant strand but I am not sure. A few hot-dog shaped organizing persisted since the last observation as well. I once again viewed a large colonial sac filled with what looks to be chloroplasts, at least 100 or so. There were also small round organisms suckling on the side of this.
Before leaving I placed one pellet of beta fish food in the container. The label read: "Atison's Betta Food" is 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%".

10/13/2009: Upon initial examination of the micro-aquarium under a microscope, I wasn't entirely sure what to find. Due to the small width of these, they can be turned and laid down flat without spilling any liquid. Under the 4x lens, there wasn't much to be seen: dirt on the bottom, a couple of plants stems. Then, moving along to the 10x lens there was much more than the naked eye can see. The were multiple sacks filled with little green chloroplast-looking objects, I saw more than half a dozen tiny worm-like creatures (which seemed to over-all outnumber the rest), flipping and twisting their bodies back and forth to propel themselves. There was a very fast moving mouse-like creature with two horn-esque things towards its front, and a thick flagella propelling it through the water. There were also much slower, smaller, kidney bean-shaped, organisms that had a tendency to hide near the dirt at the bottom of the container.

The point of this blog is to show a personal step-by-step of how to create, follow, and identify a micro-aquarium as required by the University of Tennessee Knoxville's General Botany course.

Procedure: On October 13th, a Micro-Aquarium was obtained which consists of a glass class roughly measuring around 4"x2"x1/4" with a fiberglass stand to keep it upright and lid to prevent anything from getting into said case. These cases are identifiable from one another by 3 colored dots placed along the upper left hand side of the case. The first color representing The class section one is in, the 2nd the table one sits at, and 3rd the specific seat where one sits. For me this was represented by green, red, green, and with my initials over each dots.

The aquariums will contain a small amount of sediment and water (along with micro-organisms of course) from one of various locations chosen around the Knoxville area. My sample was taken from a water pool below a spring at Lynnhurst Cemetery off of Adair Drive. This is a partially shaded exposure spring feed pond located N36 01.357 W83 55.731 958 ft. The sample was taken on October 12th, 2009. A small amount of sediment goes along the bottom of the aquariums where micro-organisms will hang about, but not too much so that they can hide. Then, 3/4 is filled with slightly clearer water with a little bit of debris. Small amounts of two plants labeled Plant A and Plant B were also placed in with the water and sediment. Plant A is a amblystegium varium, which is a moss, taken from Carter's Mill natural spring at Carters Mill Park, Carter Mill Road, Knox Co. TN. On October 11th 2009. Located at: N36 01.168 W83 42.832. Plant B is Utricularia Vulgaris from the 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 the greenhouse at Hesler Biology Building. The University of Tennessee.