Second Week

10-22-2008 Wed
The organisms in my aquarium have multiplied.

Diatoms
The diatoms were the most numerous, but they are very small.
There were all kinds, of all different shapes and sizes.
There were minor color differences between them.
But mostly they were clear, like glass or bubbles.
These were mostly found in the middle of my aquarium.
These are eukaryotic algae, and single-celled.
They belong to a large group, and they are both autotrophs and heterotrophs.
Classification is still unsettled.
These were the dominant organism. There were so many that at first I thought they were the only thing in my aquarium.

Nematodes
These are snake-like organisms.
They are parasitic and can be found in plants and animals, including humans.
They reproduce sexually. The male is smaller than the female, and the female lays eggs that hatch into larva.
They move very fast, by coiling and uncoiling.
They were found all over the aquarium.

Paramecium (cilia group)
They are Eukaryotes. Their bodies are covered in cilia.
These were mostly found in the middle of my aquarium.
They move and their movement is by their cilia spiraling through the water.
They are unicellular organisms and they feed on bacteria.
They were many of them.

Rotifer
The name comes from the Latin, meaning "wheel bearer".
These are multicellular organisms.
They have cilia around their mouth, which they move by.
These cilia look like a spinning wheel.
Rotifers are found in both fresh water and moist soil.
They are found in both still water and moving water.
In still water they are found at the bottom.
They reproduce asexually. Their reproduction is unusual - their females produce daughters from unfertilized eggs.
I only observed one. It was near the bottom.
I could see internal structures.

first week

10-22-2008 Wednesday
I drew water from the dish that was provided to us by our instructor. Mine was from a fresh water pond and I put in some green vegetation to provide food for my organisms. It was interesting because when I looked into my aquarium I was able to see some organisms already.
Some of the organisms were:

Unknown (Desmid class)
This is a long, green cigar-shaped organism.
It moves very slowly.
It has a single flagella. There appears to be a small head.
There were many of them, in the middle of the aquarium.

Spirostomum
This is a large, cigar-shaped organism.
It moves at a medium speed.
There were no flagella seen.
I only saw it once, near the bottom.

Actinosphaerium (cilia group)
This looks like an exploding star.
It was spherical with things that looked like spikes all around it.
It was stationary and the spikes didn't move.
I saw two, in the middle of the aquarium.

Nematode (Kingdom animalia)
This is long and spiral shaped.
This is a multi-celled organism.
It moves very fast.
It was found all over the aquarium, but it moves so fast it was hard to tell if it was the same one.

Epistylis (cilia group)
This looks like a cone with a rounded "head" at the top.
It has a single flagella at the thin end.
It was stationary.
I only saw one, in the middle.

Rotifer (unknown type)
This is bottle-shaped.
I only saw it once.
It moves, but within a limited area.