Observation 2

Observation 2

           
               I began the observation at 5:00 pm on Thursday. No much was seen in the beginning of the observation. This may be because most of the earlier observations were done along the aquatic plaits in the micro aquarium. Once I began to observe the base of the aquarium, near the sediment layer much more aquatic life could be seen.
          
                 The first organisms seen were long green algaes that were later identified by Mr. McFarland to be Dismids. These are photosynthetic and moved none over the course of observation. Several flagellate protozoa were later observed to be moving in a whipping motion. These could perhaps be Daphnia or Rotifer, however more reading on micro invertebrate life would be needed to properly identify these small organisms. A larger oval shaped protozoa or worm was seen coming in and out of the sediment layer. It seemed to have a gliding motion and was perhaps a type of  "flathead".  There seemed to be what I understand to be water net algae along parts of the bottom of the aquarium. It was a layer of cells with a brown color coating the top of the sediment. It was motionless for the entire observation. Next observation I will see if there are any changes to it. Before my next entry I will try to identify this cell layer and hopefully be able to identify the other protozoa's I had seen as well. All in all there were far more micro invertebrates seen in observation two than were seen in observation one.                
                
                There seemed to be no dead micro invertebrates along the base of the aquarium but there was some dead plant life. The decomposing plants may be why many of the micro invertebrates prefer the base of the aquarium. This may change after a week and I will make a point to observe the changes to the aquarium's base.

               Some distilled water was added to the aquarium at the end of the observation to account for the accidental loss of water during the observation.