Micro Aquarium Week One- So It Begins

On Tuesday October 16th I created a Microaquarium in my lab section. The sample I obtained came from the pond at the University of Tennessee Hospital on Cherokee Trail in Knoxville, Tennessee. This is a storm sewer sediment pond. My aquarium holds various plant species as well as micro organisms.

In my aquarium this week I found what appeared to be a sac of frog eggs. As seen in this picture, the sac is stationary and stays freely in the water. This is a gel-like round structure that contained many small cells with dots in the center of them, as shown below. 

I also found what appeared to be a midge, or what could have also been a mosquito larvae. It moves a lot, and makes many surprisingly quick movements. It is interesting to look at the lines throughout the organism and determine that it is the skeletal make up of the midge. There was only one found in my aquarium, but I am eager to see what he will look like next week!

Other than the midge and the frog eggs, I found that there wasn't much movement in my aquarium and water sample. The dirt settled at the bottom, and I did not find anything going on within it. There were, however, multiple small brown organisms swimming around, as well as little clear ones with what appeared to be green splotches in the middle of them. These all were so fast that I could not observe much more than that about them, except that there were two clear ones with green centers (which I figured was due to the presence of chlorophyll), and about four brown. 

The pond contained full sun exposure and I believe that may be responsible for most of the movement in my sample. 

What I observed this week:

- Sac of eggs (possibly frog eggs?)

- Midge/ mosquito larvae 

- Not much movement except for organisms I could not view as they moved too fast.