Week One Finds

The picture above is the most interesting organism I saw for this viewing session. They had moving cilia that appeared to be rotating around their central body. They never stopped moving during the five minutes I watched them. The movement of their cilia created a propeler like effect and any objects that came near them were propelled through the water at a fast rate away from the two organisms if they got close enough. I identified them as vorticella with the help of Dr. McFarland. There is a video of them posted below.



The organism above and below in the photos was not positively identified. It appeared to contract and expand its body to propel itself through the water. It also appeared to be able to latch onto pieces of muck and water plant with one side of its body.



The organism below is a diatom known as a Lihonotas that I looked up in the following book:
Rainis, Kenneth G., Bruce J. Russell, and Franklin Watts. Guide to Microlife. Figure 285. Danbury, CT. Grolier. 1996. The organism's most interesting feature was the way it moved it appeared to use its two clear ends to propel itself in a jerking fashion through the water.






The organism below is known as a Desmid. I saw several of them located near the bottom of my aquarium. According to Dr. McFarland the area inbetween the two dark green portions of the algae is where the nucleus is located. the source I identified this algae in was:
Forest, Herman Silva. Handbook of Algae. Knoxville, TN. University of Tennessee Press. 1954.







The video video below demonstrates the interesting movement of the two vorticella.

The video below is of an organism known as a ostracod that appears to be feeding on the plantit is attached to. There are many moving parts in this organism that are visible.

Additional Sightings:

Throughout my entire aquarium I observed many transparent beetle like organisms that could move very quickly. I saw them in a variety of places as well. I saw them on the plants, in open water, and in the muck on the bottom. The next organism I saw was a transparent beetle that appeared to have a bubble around it. There were a few of these swimming around in the open water. The next organism looked almost exactly like a lady bug Dr. McFarland identified it as a Rotifer. I then saw a Lecane and a Halteria that were in the bottom of the aquarium. I also saw many ciliates as identified by Dr. Mcfarland and a lot of blue-green algae. Probably the second most interesting creature I saw was a large anelid in the muck that was fairly hard to see. The parts of it I did see looked like a transparent snake. I did not take a picture of it because I did not see all of it at once. That is all of the fascinating organisms I saw in week one.
Additional Source:

Patterson, D.J. Free Living Freshwater Protozoa: A Color Guide. Figure 305. Washington. ASM Press. 2003.