Observation 3

                  I began observation 3 at 1:30 on Thursday. Before the observation a food pellet was added to the micro aquarium to be a source of carbon. The first micro invertebrates seen were Rotafers (Pennak 171) swimming along the plant life. These were mistakenly identified as Daphnia in the second blog. The Rotafers moved as they did the first week with a whipping motion from there flagellum. At a higher magnification one could see countless Colpidum (Patterson 149) around the plants. These small protest had no visible flagellum and moved in a darting motion along the edge of the plant life. The third micro invertebrate spotted was disc shaped with what appeared to be leg like appendages underneath it. It moved by crawling along the plants and seemed to be single celled. After moving my observation to the base, I saw more of these particular micro invertebrates, I identified them as Euplotes Protista. (Patterson 124)
  
              Also along the base of the micro aquarium were more Rotafers. Moving along the sediment layer was also some Litonotus protest. (Patterson fig.287) These were single celled and moved almost like a nematode. The Litonotus are identifiable by the large vacuole they have along there front edge. Two amebas were seen at the base of the aquarium as well. While one was an unidentifiable necked ameba, one was a Difflugia, (Pennak 96) which is a type of shelled ameba.
               There were clearly a higher verity of microorganisms visible in the micro aquarium and this is the first time organisms have been visible near the plant life. Most of the organisms seen near the sediment were also near the plant life with the exception of the amebas and the Litonotus. Overall there was still more of each species near the sediment. Next week I well see if this pattern of increasing microorganism  life increases          

Works Cited:

Patterson DJ. 1992. Free-Living Protozoa, A Colour Guide. Washington DC: Manson Publishing.

Pennak RW. 2001. Fresh-Water Invertebrates of the United States. New York (NY): The Ronald     Press Company.

Rainis KG and Russell BJ. 1996. Guide to Microlife. Danbury (CT): Franklin Watts Publishing.