Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Week #2
Last Tuesday I went back to the lab to check up on my MicroAquarium. It was teeming with life. The plants were greener and the organisms were bigger. I could even see them without my microscope. I was able to see more organisms because all of the sediment has settled to the bottom. There are still a few that I haven't been able to identify, but I will be sure to update as soon as I find out. I did notice some more nematoads and ostracods swimming around. There were also transparent skeletal organisms near the plants. They were kind of scary looking and I'm still curious as to what they might be. We also added our food pellet to the aquarium. I am sure when I check on it again today my aquarium will be full of life I will be able to see more than the last time. Today should be an interesting day for my little micro water world. I'll be sure to post pictures soon.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Setting Up and Initial Observations
Last Tuesday we set up our MicroAquariums. The MicroAquarium looks like two small panes of glass hot glued together with a plastic stand on the bottom and a plastic cover on top. We identify our MicroAquarium by different color coded dots on the side of them. One designated for our lab section, one for our table, and one for our seat number. After we set up a way to differentiate ourselves from everyone else we began to fill out MicroAquarium with the contents that would bring it to life.
We used a pipette to extract enough water to almost fill up our MicroAquarium. Each table had a different water source. My water source was the following:
#11. Fountain City Duck Pond. West of Broadway at Cedar Lane. Knox Co. Knoxville TN Full sun exposure. Spring Feed Pond N36 02.087 W83 55.967 963 ft 10/12/2009
This water source was pretty nasty looking which is exciting because I think it will help produce a lot of life. After the water we added two different plants which are the following:
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. 10/11/2009
Plant B. Utricularia vulgaris L. FloweringPlant. 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.
These plants should get bigger as the MicroAquarium starts getting more complex. That will be interesting since it's such a small space. I don't know how that will work out. We also had the opportunity to make our initial observations of what might or might not be living in our aquariums. I had some pretty interesting stuff going on.
There was some kind of fuzzy taco shaped dirt eating monster bug living at the bottom of my aquarium. It's rumored that "he" was an ostracod. I'm not sure. There was also another pod-like creature darting across the aquarium. It looked like a jellyfish with something floating inside its body. Definitely strange looking. I think it will be neat to see what happens in the little world this week. I'll keep you updated.
We used a pipette to extract enough water to almost fill up our MicroAquarium. Each table had a different water source. My water source was the following:
#11. Fountain City Duck Pond. West of Broadway at Cedar Lane. Knox Co. Knoxville TN Full sun exposure. Spring Feed Pond N36 02.087 W83 55.967 963 ft 10/12/2009
This water source was pretty nasty looking which is exciting because I think it will help produce a lot of life. After the water we added two different plants which are the following:
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. 10/11/2009
Plant B. Utricularia vulgaris L. FloweringPlant. 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.
These plants should get bigger as the MicroAquarium starts getting more complex. That will be interesting since it's such a small space. I don't know how that will work out. We also had the opportunity to make our initial observations of what might or might not be living in our aquariums. I had some pretty interesting stuff going on.
There was some kind of fuzzy taco shaped dirt eating monster bug living at the bottom of my aquarium. It's rumored that "he" was an ostracod. I'm not sure. There was also another pod-like creature darting across the aquarium. It looked like a jellyfish with something floating inside its body. Definitely strange looking. I think it will be neat to see what happens in the little world this week. I'll keep you updated.
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