Observations from October 23rd.

On October 23rd. the micro aquarium was quite active, and although no species were officially identified, several images of the present organisms were obtained.  I noticed several micro-organisms including several Rotifers, two Amoebas, Coplidium, and a Euglenoid; all of which were largely  concentrated around the plants in the micro-aquarium with a few floating free in the middle.  All organisms observed were plainly visible under 10x magnification.  The above pictures were all taken using my phone's camera.  Closer observation will be needed to determine exactly what the microorganisms are however.

 

This video was taken utilizing the camera on my Samsung galaxy 4 and shows the movement of a Rotifer that is attached to a nearby plant.

An amoeba is visible in the upper right of this image.  It should be noted that several others like this were viewed this week.

The tiny micro organism in the middle of this image was present with a great deal of abundance, images of the organisms were difficult to obtain, however, due to the high speed with which they swam around the aquarium.

In this image, a Rotifer is visible hanging on to the adjacent plant with its toes.

Initial setup

This project began October 15th.

For my micro-aquarium project I chose to use water from the Carter Mill Park spring source (Carter Mill Park at spring source, Carter Mill Road, Knox Co. Tennessee Partial shade exposure N36 01.168 W83 42.832 940 ft 10/12/2014).   Two plant species: Amblestegium varium [(Hedwig) Lindberg. Moss. Collection from: Natural spring. at Carters Mill Park, Carter Mill Road, Knox Co. TN. Partial shade exposure. N36 01.168 W83 42.832. 10/12/2014 ] and Utricularia gibba  [L. Flowering plant. A carnivorous 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. 10/12/2014] were also included.

After construction of the micro aquarium was complete (a relatively simple task consisting of inserting the small glass container into a small stand ) I added the water sample along with some soil from the water source and the two plant species.  After some mild rearranging of the plants with a pair of tweezers I placed the water sample under the microscope to obtain some initial observations.  The micro-aquarium was teeming with tiny life-forms (some were rather amorphous while others were elongated and worm-like) as well as some larger ones that were even visible without a microscope [in particular there was a large squirming worm about the diameter of mechanical pencil lead].

(The above image was taken after the initial construction was completed.)