November 13 Observations

I'm afraid my observations from last week were a little skewed because i made the error of adding water to my micro-aquarium before observing, thus diluting my source and making my organisms much harder to find. Hey, it's science. These things happen. So when i observed my pond today without adding any water, there seemed to be much more organisms than there were last week, but in all actuality, there were probably less. This week they were just easier to find. That is my disclaimer for this week's observations. Take it as you will.
In the top waters, i found much more diatoms than before, mainly the accordian shaped ones. I also saw about four epistylis and three rotifers, also a bit more than last week. The abundance of blue green algae was overwhelming. My little organisms are finding it difficult to find much space to swim around.
In the middle waters I continued to find a variety of creatures. These included heliozoans(3), paramecium(5), and halteria (10+). The blue green algae continued to dominated this area as well, but i did observe one new creature. Known as Euplotes, this is a single celled ciliate, and has a rows of cirri which allow it to walk along certain surfaces (Patterson, 124). I only saw one of these.
In the muddy waters, i noticed even more of an abundance of carpenter's rulers, over ten to be more specific. Most of the organisms in this arena were colonized masses of diatoms and algae. The halteria continued to roam about here, as well as some rotifers and paramecium. However, the most large celled organism i saw was the Tachysoma. This creature is a single celled hypotrich with dorsal bristles that aid in its movement (Patterson, 124). It is also chlorophyll based. Attached is a self taken picture of the Tachysoma, just to the left of his friend the carpenter's ruler.

Running Works Cited Page

Bold, Harold C., and Michael J. Wynne. Introduction to the Algae, 2nd Edition. Prentice-Hall, Inc.: New Jersey. 1985. 82-86.

Patterson, D.J. Free Living Freshwater Protozoa. Manson Publishing Ltd: London, 1996. 51-143.

November 4th Observations

Numbers of organisms started diminishing this week. Particularly in the top and middle waters, there were significantly less organisms than I have seen any other week. In the top waters, I saw no more heliozoans, and slim to no more ciliates. The colonies of diatoms, however, still remained in high numbers, in fact, a great bit more than last week. There were only one or two rotifer's to be found as well. It seems that with the less organisms there are, the more algae has formed. I found several strands of algae throughout the entire pond.
The only organisms I saw in the middle waters with the plants were only a few paramecium, halteria, and rotifers. They were all swimming with great motion looking for food, I presume. It would seem as though they are the main predators of the pond.
The muddy waters is a different story, however, since numbers of organisms actually increased. A portion of these numbers can be attributed to dead organisms that have found their way to the bottom of the micro pond. In the lower waters, i observed approximately 12 paramecium, 15 halteria, and 12 carpenter's rulers, and one gastrotrich, and countless colonies of diatoms. These numbers were more than that of last week, save that of the gastrotrich. I did observe one new organism, however. It was a multi celled, non-chlorophyll based flagellate, that is a member of the genus, Peranema. It was rather large, and had a flagellum with a tip that moved the creature with a propeller like motion (Patterson, 51). Please observe this Peranema in the lower left hand corner.

October 29 Observations

The theme for this week's observations is population increases. Just about all of the original organisms i observed a week ago were nearly doubled. There was also a growing population of various blue green algae. I did notice a couple other new organisms, however. In the top waters, I found some heliozoans, which were non-chlorophyll based, single celled organisms. They were stationary, round, and had rays extending from their body, like the rays of the sun. I also saw many different forms of diatoms, both small and big. The smaller ones were too numerous to count and were stationed in colonies. One other that i saw was the Busaria, which is distinguishable by it's large gut and many cilia.

The main organism in the middle waters was the Halteria, which can be distinguished by it's motion of moving in strides, separated by short pauses. Instead of cilia, it has a row of equatorial spikes on one side for movement. There were also a few Gastrotrich's as well.

The muddy waters were the most populated. I observed basically everything i had before, except in greater numbers. These organisms include: Diatoms, Carpenter's Ruler, Gastrotrich's, Paramecium, Epistylus', Rotifers and also Heliozoans. The Gastrotrich's were observed digesting other organisms. Still, the most peculiar one i have seen is the Carpenter's Ruler. Please observe:

October 22 Observations

Just to clarify, my micro-pond was created from water source #6, which was the Holston River along John Sevier Hwy under the I 40 bridge.  The location had partial shade.. I added both plants A and B, which were Amblystegium varium and Utricularia vulgaris L..

Today I saw a wide variety of micro-organisms. We'll start off with the ones in the top portion of the water. The first on i saw was single celled, non chlorophyll based, and stationary. There was a small colony of them, with at least ten present. One of them had what appeared to be two long flagella attached to its body. The other organism i saw was what i believe to be a Gastrotrich (Patterson, 28). It was a multi-celled organism with two tails in the back and cilia in the front on it's head. I only saw one of them.

I saw the widest variety of organisms in the middle waters, where the plants were located. The first one i saw is a chlorophyll based, single celled Epistylis (Patterson, 112). It was stationary, and appeared to be attached to the plant with it's flagella, though it could have just been sitting next to it. I saw only two Epistyli. The next organism that i was able identify was the Rotifer (Patterson, 27). A shell like creature, he head and a pointed tail, with wheel shaped cilia at it's mouth, where it seemed to be inhaling smaller bacteria. He was multi-celled, and moved all around. There were also a couple of Paramecium swimming around rather fast. It was very large, however, it was single celled and chlorophyll based. I noticed other very small circular organisms that moved around very fast. They were probably in the vast majority.

In the muddy waters, the most prominent creature i saw was what is commonly known as the Carpenter's Ruler (Bold, 86). It is a chlorophyll based, multi-celled organism that moves and looks just like a carpenter's ruler. There were at lease five of these guys all along the mud of my micro-pond. I will try to get a video of them next time. There were also ten or more long, brown and worm like creatures known as Diatoms (Bold, 82). They were stationary. There was also a few rotifers swimming around eating, as well as several very small bacteria colonies. I will go ahead and attach this picture of the Gastrotrich, for your viewing pleasure.

Image found at: www.gpmatthews.nildram.co.uk

October 14 Observations

For the first five minutes of observing my micro pond, all i saw was the vegetation i had placed in there, along with the mud from the pond samples.  However, the more i looked, the more organisms I began to see.  The first few organisms I observed were both multi-celled and chlorophyll based.  They seemed to be swimming in circles, aimlessly.  I only saw about three of these organisms, and they were located in the middle waters.  There were also many single celled chlorophyll based organisms.  They moved rather fast.  The last organism i observed was probably the most exciting.  He was multi-celled and swam about with a flagella.  Since he had no green tint, I don't think he was chlorophyll based.  Next week's post will include which water sources i drew my samples from.