When I observed my Micro-Aquarium this week, I first noticed that air bubbles were all around the plants I added last week. I determined that this was Oxygen being released by the plants. I also noticed a blue tint of cyanobacteria all around the area where the food pellet had been.
When I placed the Micro-Aquarium under the microscope I noticed immediately that the huge numbers of organisms I observed last week were no longer present. The hundreds of clear, bouncing organisms must have consumed each other as their food source disappeared.
I did observe a great deal of algae. I saw a great deal of long skinny threads that looked like noodles or worms. I was able to identify them as oscillatoria from the following source:
Forest HS. Handbook of Algae. Knoxville(TN): The University of Tennessee Press: 1954. 381.
I saw many diatoms that were non-motile. I also saw unicelluar blobs with vacuoles. I could only locate one of the several Vorticella that were seen the last two weeks. It was spinning very quickly. I saw many of the Difflugia that I had previously observed, but they were not moving this time. I did see the wormlike organism that we thought could be a Nemotode last week. He was still moving too quickly to be identified.
Overall, this week's observation was a lot less active than last week's. The food pellet that caused such a huge increase in population is now exhausted and the organisms have eaten each other up. They seem to all be slowing down and disappearing.
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