October 10/19/2010

This week I went back to the lab to view my micro-aquarium and see if I could find any changes and begin to identify organisms. I first saw the Rotifer that is pictured. It had little extensions like spurs coming out of it. One was in the soil area and another was at the top of the water moving very quickly. The exact type could not be determined because it was so fast. Dr. McFarland showed me some cyanobacteria, algae and diatoms in the water. We then observed the big round mass with 3 tendrils. We used the special 40x lens to view it and determined it was some sort of amoeba with a single cell. We determined it to be a Difflugia and the picture I added shows it in great detail. Additionally, I saw some sort of flagellate that could not be identified. It appeared to have a capsule and was dragging something by flagella. Finally, we discovered some vaselike organisms with cilia attached to a long string. We identified it as Vorticella. The vaselike structure would spin and filter debris. I took a video of it spinning and have included it. We determined that I should add more plant material next week.