October 22, 2010

The trapping bladders on Plant B (Utricularia gibba L.) now contain many of the small, round organisms that were in the aquarium last week.  I believe that the round green, stationary organisms that I observed last week were actually these bladders before they had fully matured.  There are also many cyclops organisms which are classified as free-living copepods.  They are very common, found in soils and sands of quiet waters, about 1 to 2 mm, and greyish brown in color.  These are found throughout the aquarium.  At the bottom of the tank I observed several dead organism which is not surprising since the number of organisms in the aquarium seems to have to decreased dramatically from my last observation.  One of these dead organisms was surrounded by small, green, single-celled organisms.  While looking for organisms in and around the soil at the bottom of the tank I also saw what appeared to be some sort of a large worm occasionally stick its head out of the soil to feed on the remains of the organisms that had gathered in the soil.  I never really had the chance to have a good enough view of it to identify it, however, since it kept retreating back into the soil.

October 12, 2010

Today we set up the microaquarium by pipetting mud and water from our chosen water source into the aquarium.  The aquarium consists of two rectangular pieces of glass sealed together on three sides.  After the mud settled to the bottom we inserted small pieces of two different species of plants into it as well to provide oxygen for the organisms.

My water source is number 11.  Fountain City Duck Pond. West of Broadway at Cedar Lane. Knox Co. Knoxville TN Full sun exposure. Spring Feed Pond N36 02.087 W83 55.967 963 ft 10/10/2010.  One of the plants we added to the tank was Fontinalissp. Moss (Plant A).  Collection from: Natural spring. at Carters Mill Park, Carter Mill Road, Knox Co. TN. Partial shade exposure. N36 01.168 W83 42.832. 10/10/2010.  The other species of plant we added was Utricularia gibba L. Flowering plant (Plant B).  A carnivous plant. Original material from south shore of Spain Lake (N 35o55 12.35" W088o20' 47.00), Camp Bella Air Rd. East of Sparta Tn. in White Co. and grown in water tanks outside of greenhouse at Hesler Biology Building. The University of Tennessee. Knox Co. Knoxville TN.

While viewing the aquarium under a microscope I observed some round, green, stationary organisms.  There were also some that were not green and that had two long tails.  They would stay still for a while, but would go really fast when they did move.  Another organism that I observed that wasn't green seemed to have an opening that they used to propel themselves.