Friday, November 16th

Today, as I expected, there were hardly any organisms still living in my aquarium. It wasn't until I observed the bottom of the aquarium that I found a large amount of organisms. The three main organisms I observed were Fragellaria sp. (Rainis and Russell 1996 page 113), Stylaria sp. (Rainis and Russell 1996 page 227), and Actinosphaerium (Patterson 1996 page 169 figure 395), and there was an ample amount of each in the mud at the bottom of the aquarium. This was the first time I had noticed a Fragellaria, which is a ribbon-shaped diatom that continuously breaks apart and reproduces to form new ribbons. A few organisms I have seen since the very first observation are Actinosphaerium, Clacoderan, and Ostrocod. They have been consistent and there have been a good amount of them each time. I assume they require the least amount of nutrients to survive.





Rainis K.G. and Russell B.J. 1996. Guide to Microlife. Franklin Watts. United States. 287 p.


Patterson DJ. 1996. Free-Living Freshwater Protozoa. (NY) John Wiley and Sons. 223 p.

Friday, November 9th

Today, I am sad to report that the mass majority of living organisms in my aquarium have died in the past week. The main organisms left are vertebrates, such as Cladoceran, or water flea, (Pennak 1989 page 481 image D) and Ostrocod, or Seed Shrimp (Rainis and Russell 1996 page 209). Both of these organisms have been present in the aquarium since the first observation. I did, however see a few invertebrates, such as the Chaos sp. (Lee, Hunter, and Bovee 1985 page 162 fig. 4) seen to the right. This is an amoeba that moves by means of cytoplasmic flow inside of the organism. The cytoplasm flows in the direction it wants to move, pushing it in that direction. I also identified a Stylodaria sp. (Rainis and Russell 1996 page 227). This is the organism with the long, trunk-like proboscis seen above. Plant B, the Utricularia gibba, which showed great growth last week, has also died within the past week.

Rainis K.G. and Russell B.J. 1996. Guide to Microlife. Franklin Watts. United States. 287 p.

Lee J.J., Hunter S.H., and Bovee E.C. 1985. Illustrated Guide to the Protozoa. Allen Press, Inc. Lawrence, KS. 629 p.

Pennak RW. 1989. Freshwater Invertebrates of the United States. (NY) John Wiley and Sons. 628 p.

Friday, November 2nd

Today, the addition of the Beta Fish Pellet was obviously observed. Millions of little flagellates have come to be as a result of the fish pellet, however, they have not yet been identified. Among the flagellates, Euplotes were also added to the ecosystem (Patterson 1996 page 124 figure 261) I continued to see many Actinosphaerium sp. throughout the tank, as well as multiple Gastrotrich, shown above (Pennak 1989 page 126 figure 6.7). Very little is known about these invertebrates. I observed tremendous growth in plant B, the Utricularia gibba. The flowering buds on the plant had grown very much in both size and quantity.

Chaetonotus, or Gastrotrich

Patterson DJ. 1996. Free-Living Freshwater Protozoa. (NY) John Wiley and Sons. 223 p.




Pennak RW. 1989. Freshwater Invertebrates of the United States. (NY) John Wiley and Sons. 628 p.