Observation 5

This past week was the last observation I had of my Microaquarium, which occurred on November 13.  This week was one of the most active, and I observed a large amount of organisms in my aquarium. Although most of the organisms in my aquarium I had already seen before I did notice a few interesting organisms that were new to me:

 The picture above is an Epalxis(source #3, fig. 31, pg 141). 

This Protozoa was moving quickly in one of the less-inhabited regions of the aquarium, moving around and often making 360 degree turns and then swimming a completely different direction. I presume it was feeding or looking for food. 

I had observed these slow-moving organisms before in my Aquarium, but I had not identified them until this week.  This one in particular was larger than usual. 

This Rotifer is also an organism I had seen in previous lab observations but I did not have a picture of one yet(Source 4). This Rotifer was attached to a Diatom with its "toe'', which I assume was for easy accessibility while it was feeding. 

Above is a Diatom, although I was not able to identify which specific one, it is the same type that the picture of the Rotifer above was attached to.

Above is a type of green algae, a Coleochaete(fig. 87, pg. 90, source #2). It was stationary and also very large because of all the weeks it has had to grow in my aquarium.

Another interesting organism I noticed was an Anabaena sp(source #1). There was quite an abundance of this cyanobacteria in my aquarium, which in appearance looks like long green chains which are actually different types of cells.

Besides all of the organisms I mentioned above I saw dozens of organisms that I had seen in previous lab weeks. I made some very interesting observations over the course of these last five weeks, and saw many interesting types of organisms.







1. Canter-Lund, Hilda, and John W. G. Lund. Freshwater Algae: Their Microscopic World Explored. Bristol, England: Biopress, 1995. Print.

2. Forest, Herman Silva. Handbook of Algae. Knoxville: U of Tennessee, 1954. Print.

3.  Patterson, David J. Free-living Freshwater Protozoa: A Colour Guide. New York: Wiley ;, 1996. Print 

4. Pennak, Robert W. Fresh-Water Invertebrates of the United States: Protozoa to Mollusca. 3rd ed. A Wiley-interscience publication.