Week 3

The micro aquarium was business as usual.  It has been just a little over two weeks since the beta food was added.  There maybe a slight drop in the quantity of organisms the past weeks.  I noticed that the two plants that were inserted during the initial setup are beginning to visually shrivel and turn brown.  This could be attributed to being under the lights in the lab constantly or from microorganisms doing harm to the vascular cambium or doing something to inhibit uptake of water by the plants.  It could also simply be from a lack of necessary nutrients to stay alive.  I wanted to get some pictures this week but I was running late for a class project meeting in so I only had time for a quick stop in the lab for observations.  Only one more week before the micro aquariums are shut down!

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

Week 2

On Friday October 21, 2011 "ONE" Beta Food Pellet was inserted into each microaquarium. 
"Atison's Betta Food" made by Ocean Nutrition, Aqua Pet Americas, 3528 West 500 South, Salt Lake City, UT 84104. Ingredients: Fish meal, wheat flower, soy meal, krill meal, minerals, vitamins and preservatives. Analysis: Crude Protein 36%; Crude fat 4.5%; Crude Fiber 3.5%; Moisture 8% and Ash 15%.  The fish meal ingredient should contain nitrogen which will provide an energy source for the microorganisms to become very active.  Nitrogen given to microorganisms is like giving candy or chocolate to a small child and will cause them to be very excited and overly active.  I anticipate than within 7-14 days the microorganisms will be the most active so far for the project.  There should be some really good pictures available next week!!

1st Observations

I wanted to do a quick update from last week.  I forgot to mention that the water source is a pond below Lynnhurst Cemetery off of Adair Drive in Knoxville Tennessee.  The GPS coordinates are N36 01.357 W83 55.731 958 ft and the water was collected on October 9th 2011.  I feel confident the nematode looking critter was one.  The signature stilet was visible and the movement was similar to other observations I have seen from them.  It is also worth noting that I am not able to use the high power on the microscope because the glass aquarium will make a slight cracking sound before the picture comes into focus.  

Setup

On October 11, 2011 the whole class set up our micro aquariums in class.  The aquarium was made of a glass material and is only big enough to hold a few milliliters of water.  It has a base and a top for the aquarium as well.  We all had choices of which water source to put in our aquariums.  I chose sample #10 which is a water pool below a spring at Lynnhurst Cemetery.  We used two different plants to place in the aquarium.  Plant A is a Amblestegium sp. Moss. Collection from: Natural spring. at Carters Mill Park, Carter Mill Road, Knox Co. TN. Partial shade exposure. N36 01.168 W83 42.832. 10/9/2011.  Plant B is a Utricularia gibba L. Flowering plant. 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. One had a course stem feel and the other was a moss.  We were told that the moss was a popular plant for organisms to live on and around.  I even saw what looked to me like a nematode swimming around the moss.  I had to use a microscope to see it of course!  We were able to take the lid off and lay the aquarium flat without any water escaping.  I thought this was like some magic show!  Lastly we took all aquariums across the hall where they will remain for 5 weeks so we can observe the changes that are taking place inside.