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.