Week 1

pandorina 11-15-07

Thursday
October 25, 2007
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM

One week after setting up my microcosm experiment, I observed it. I started by observing the layer at the bottom of the MicroAquarium(TM) on the lowest power (4x). I noticed dense brown clumps, some long, thing brown-clear immobile objects, some small green hairball-like things, and more euplotes. There were also many Paramecium bursaria.

On the medium setting (10x), I noticed a big tangle of what appeared to by cyanobacteria that the euplotes were eating. There was also a big, scaly, skin-like, scabby brown object that had green dots. I also observed more nematodes that were having spasms, a few Paramecium aurelia, and a seed shrimp.

In the middle area of my MicroAquarium(TM), on 4x setting, there were more of the Paramecium bursaria. On the 10x setting, there were lots of cyanobacteria, one stentor that I noticed, and a couple pandorina.

At the top of the MicroAquarium(TM) where the Moss B and Wolffia were, on the lowest setting I noticed that the Wolffia had new curled growth and that both plants were growing roots / hyphae. Also, there were more of the plants described from the middle section of the MicroAquarium(TM).

That day one pellet of "Atison's Betta Food" was added to each Micro Aquaria. It 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%.

euplotes 11-15-2007

Set Up

Amanda's MicroAquarium(TM) 10-25-2007

Thursday
October 18, 2007
6:30 PM - 9:10 PM

I received a MicroAquarium(TM) and labeled it in this manner: Because I am in the evening class, first I placed a blue dot on my MicroAquarium(TM), then I placed a red dot beneath it because that is the color my table was assigned. Finally, I placed an orange dot on my MicroAquarium(TM) because I was in the third seat of my table.

The sample contained in my MicroAquarium(TM) was taken from an Elodea plant. A sample was taken from the bottom of its container, from the middle, and from the top. I also added Moss B and Wolffia to my MicroAquarium(TM).

When I observed the contents of my MicroAquarium(TM) under a microscope at the 10x magnification setting. There were some nematodes, euplotes which kept spinning, green, brown, and clear tubular things that contained what were either chloroplasts, algae, or cyanobacteria, and brown and black dots. I also observed Moss B, and found that it had tiny leaves and also larger brown dots next to the leaves. The Wolffia plant had long strands of green, and also small, round, green things attached to them periodically. I drew sketches of what I saw so that I would remember what they look like, but they were not very good so I did not post them.