Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Week 2: Observing the Aquarium

Today, I looked over my microaquarium at around 12. In it, I was able to notice that there were already several organisms floating around in the water. I was able to then take some pictures of these organisms and classify them.

The first one I noticed was a water mite. Water mites have segmented bodies with a fused head and thorax (Rainis and Russell 239, 1996). This particular mite was a dark brown and was hiding itself amongst the plants. The mite had four pairs of legs.

I was also able to find a rather large duflugia. This particular duflugia, which can be seen in the picture below, looks dark brown and has flagella surrounding it. It has a round body and the pseudopodia in it are lobose (Patterson 96, 1996; Fig. 187). Duflugia contain pieces that are able to accumulate other small structures within it. These are called “grit”. Notice the strands coming out of the sides. These are flagella that have attached to the duflugia.

Duflugia:

As mentioned before, there are several flagella that are either surrounding, or are attached to the duflugia. The most noticeable ones are the ansionema. These flagella carry a whipping flagella strand, which is easy to notice through the microscope because of its constant motion (Patterson 54, 1996; Fig. 78). These particular flagella also have a distinct hook. By looking at the picture, it is also easy to notice the red eye sockets of the flagella.

Ansionema:

An organism called vorticella also attaches itself to the two plants inside of the microaquariam. These creatures cause currents with their lips and contain cilia (Patterson 113, 1996; Fig. 234). Food is obtained by them by passing it through its buccal cavity. When the microaquarium is tapped, the vorticella will quickly retreat back, and close its lips that were once open. This serves as defense mechanism against predators.

Vorticella:

Lastly, I was able to find a rather lively nemotode. This nemotode was shaped much like that of a worm and was fighting to pull itself off of another vorticella. Nemotodes contain phasmids, or sense organs, that can detect anthropod pests (Rainis and Russell 231-232, 1996). They also release bacteria.

Nemotode (and Vorticella):

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