Week 4

This week I visually noticed a significant to my micro aquarium.  A large percentage of the microorganisms had died.  I went in on November 8, 2011 and everything seemed like hardly any change had occurred from the previous week.  On November 18, I went in to get some pictures and it was like "Who stole my micro organisms!"  I looked for the better part of an hour to find a nematode as they had been very common in previous weeks I only could find two with the microscope.  I also noticed a visual change in the plants that had been inserted during the initial setup of this project.  They were starting to turn brown and shrivel up.  I am really struggling to figure out what happened to everything since the food was added a couple weeks ago.  I originally thought that the nitrogen and protein in the food would provide an extra source of energy to the micro organisms.  The only thing I can think of is that a rate that exceed the capable levels of consumption by the micro organisms caused a toxicity in the water and killed them.  I can't really say the food is the cause of the plants shriveling up though.

Nematode
ipm.iastate.edu