Micro Aquarium Week Four

This week I viewed my aquarium on Thursday, November the 8th at 11 am. To observe it I used a compound microscope in the lab and a Sony camera to take pictures with. I also used Photoshop to edit the pictures for the purposes of this blog.

FOOD PELLET INFORMATION:"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%.(McFarland)

This week I observed what was, in my opinion, the most interesting species so far: a microscopic Annelid (Smith 2001). It was nestled inside the dirt at the bottom of the tank feeding, so I did not get many clear pictures of him, but I did get a video (shown at the bottom of this post).

It can be observed that it is an annelid as it has microscopic hair on its body, which is characteristic of this species. Its movement was mostly in a straight line, unless it was turning, then it would curve over itself to keep going. This was no small organism, however. This annelid was at least 3-4 lens views long, and kept me adjusting. It was interesting for me, to see how large this organism is in comparison to the others in my tank.

The next thing I observed was the cyclops Copepoda from last week (Pennak 1989). It appears to have grown slightly, and I was able to get a better, more clear picture of it.

This week I did not find a single midge, which seems very odd in comparison to a week ago. This could be due to the fact that halfway through my observations, when taking the aquarium off of the microscope plate, I tipped the aquarium too much sideways, and a lot of water was lost in spillage. However, the observations I had made prior to the spill indicate no midge present. It is also important to mention that the long worm I observed last week was also not present.

On a brighter note, I found a new organism!
It is also called a annelid, but looks significantly different from the one above. This one has clear hairs on its body and horizontal lines down its body as well, which helped me identify it as an annelid. It is much smaller than the one above, and seems to contain small green pigments which are most likely chlorophyll.

I concluded after my observations that the midge most likely died and decayed to the bottom of the tank in the dirt. I viewed many small strands of what looked like they could have been dead organisms at the bottom of the tank. 

So, to sum it all up, this week I observed:

-No Midge

- A large Annelid

- A smaller Annelid with green pigment

- Cyclops from previous weeks

- Several snails, although many seem to have been lost in the accident as well. 

Video of Large Annelid at the bottom of the aquarium feeding (poor quality)