I did my third observation on 10-27-09 and it is also the third week of my micro aquarium. The activity has increased dramatically, especially around the food pellet and plants."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%. There are new organisms that I have not noticed before. They are called paramecium, and they are all over the place, possibly numbering in the hundreds. I have included a video of them around a food pellet at the bottom of this post.

All of this new activity can be seen with the naked eye, the paramecium appear as just tiny specks, and the seed shrimp and ostracods being slightly larger. The microscope really revealed how much things have changed in a week. I beleive I could take a picture of any part of the micro aquarium and capture something new that I have not seen.



With a lot of effort, because they move so quickly, I was finally able to get a picture of a cyclops, which you see above. This one is a female, the green looking sacs on the side are eggs. Below you can see a picture of an ostracod and a seed shrimp, both of which are more numerous than in the previous two weeks.

Below is the paramecium feeding from the food pellet, this same activity can be seen around the plants as well.

A week after setting up my micro aquarium I returned to do another observation on 10-20-09. Lots of things have changed just from looking at it with the naked eye. First the two largest organisms thought to be seed shrimp are dead, both are floating at the top of the micro aquarium. Second there seems to be a lot more activity, numerous small organisms can be seen swimming all over.

With the microscope I observed a cyclops, numerous ostracods that seemed to be feeding or going through the soil at the bottom of the micro aquarium. I observed one of the ostracods eating a smaller organism, or at least that is what I thought was happening. I was also able to observe an amoeba and get a couple of pictures under different magnifications, which are the pictures you see above.

With the help of a reference book Free Living Freshwater Protozoa A Colorful Guide by D.J. Patterson, published in 1992 and the website Tree of Life Web Project I was able to identify it as Difflugia Corona. Here is a link if you would like to check it out at http://tolweb.org/difflugia/124487

1st. Day - Setup

The water source for my microaquarium is # 11, the Fountain City duck pond. The duck pond is located in Knoxville, TN west of Broadway at Cedar Lane. It is a spring fed pond with full sun exposure. The sample was taken on 10/12/2009 and was added to my microaquarium on 10/13/2009.

The setup of the microaquarium started with getting dirt fron the bottom of my water sample and adding it in, then filling it with water from the sample. The next step was adding two different types of plants, labled A and B. Plant A . Amblystegium varium (Hedw.) Lindb. Moss. Collection from: Natural spring. at Carters Mill Park, Carter Mill Road, Knox Co. TN. Partial shade exposure. N36 01.168 W83 42.832. 10/11/2009Plant B. Utricularia vulgaris L. Flowering, and Plant B. Utricularia gibba L. 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.

My first observation showed 3 small organisms swimming around, this was seen with the naked eye, no microscope was needed. Next I placed my microaquarium under the microscope but the organisms were moving too fast for me to focus on them. I caught a glimpse of one and it was thought to be a seed shrimp, but I am not certain untill I can get a better look under the microscope.