Week 4

Well, this has been a cool assignment! It's been great getting to observe the micro-aquariums. This last time I didn't see anything I hadn't seen before. Just the same critters I'd seen in my last observation. I spent a few minutes watching the long strands of cyano-bacteria snaking along. So I've seen Rotifers. Amoeba. Fragilaria. Epalxella. Paranema. Arcella. as well as a few other creatures in my aquarium, like the diatoms. So these are a few of the organisms that are living and growing in the tanks behind Hesler here at UTK.The diatoms are my favorites because they look so neat, like tiny stars or moving jewels.  

Fig 1. Reference used to identify organisms: D.J. Patterson. Free-Living Freshwater  Protozoa. A Colour Guide.

Fig 2. Reference used to identify organisms: D.J. Patterson. Free-Living Freshwater  Protozoa. A Colour Guide.

Fig 3.  Cluster of 3 Diatoms. Reference used to identify organisms: D.J. Patterson. Free-Living Freshwater  Protozoa. A Colour Guide.

Reference used:  D.J. Patterson. Free-Living Freshwater  Protozoa. A Colour Guide. Note the strand of cyanobacteria it's swimming over.

Week 3

So this post is a bit late in coming since I've had to identify the organisms in photos. It was really neat being able to hook the microscope up to the computer and watch it on the computer screen rather then straining to see  through the microscope lens. The highlight of the experience was watching what I originally thought was a strand of green algae. I zoomed in on it to see if I could identify it, then realized it was moving. Over a period of about 5 minutes I watched the strand of green "beads" separate into what turned out to be an amoeba. The amoeba was ingesting part of the cyanobacterium filament. I was lucky enough to get a sequence of pictures documenting the phenomenon (See figures 3-10). Epalxella (see fig 11) was zooming around in the aquarium and since it moves very fast the picture is a bit blurry. If you look carefully you can just see the identifying "hook" on it (tip of the arrow).  One of the most distinct was the beautiful golden box-shaped diatom Fragilaria (see fig 1).

Figure 1. A Colonial Diatom. Reference used to identify organism: The Algae of Illinois. by Lewis Hanford Tiffany and Max Edwin Britton. Pg 232.

Figure 2. Paranema.  Reference used to identify organism:  D.J. Patterson. Free-living Freshwater Protozoa. A Colour Guide. 

 Figure 3. Amoeba ingesting cyanobacteria.

Figure 4. Amoeba ingesting cyanobacteria. Reference used to identify organism (the same organism is in figures 3-10): Free-Living Freshwater Protozoa.
 A Colour Guide by D.J. Patterson.

Figure 5. Amoeba. Note the movement of the green "beads" from a straight line to curved after being ingested. 

Figure 6. Note how Amoeba is starting to separate from the Cyanobacteria strand. 

Figure 7.  The organism has separated and is moving away.

Figure 8.

Figure 9. 

Figure 10. 

Figure.  11. Epalxella. Reference used to identify organism: D.J. Patterson. Free-living Freshwater Protozoa. A Colour Guide. The two other dots are algae. 

Figure 12. Identified using  D.J. Patterson. Free-Living Freshwater  Protozoa. A Colour Guide. 

Figure 13. Rotifer. Identified with the aid of D.J. Patterson. Free-Living Freshwater  Protozoa. A Colour Guide.