Observation session 2

On Thursday, October 20 I went down to the lab to observe my MicroAquarium. I quickly noted that I had lost a lot of water leaving my aquarium only about half way full. I went to the microscope and started looking on the 4X setting. Here I could not see a whole lot, but I was able to see some small clear organisms swimming around. I could not tell much about them except that they had some small flagella or tail like parts. I could also tell that a lot of the material had been scattered around in my aquarium. It defiantly settled all around he container instead of just at the bottom where I expected it to. I then switched to the 10X setting to get a closer look. Here I saw some smaller, clear, floating organisms that seemed a lot more simple than the other I had seen. Cyanabacteria was everywhere, being seen in long, clear, strand like structures. On the plant Utricularia gibba, I could see bubble like structures around the stems. It had a lot of activity around these parts. Much more than the moss Amblestegium, or in the dirt had around them. At this point, Dr. McFarland came over to help me identify the organisms I had found. The first organism I found that was clear with a small flagella, was a Rotifer. The smaller, more simple organism was an Epalxis (Patterson im. 311), and together we found another organism. This was a disc shaped organism with a long flagella that would open at the top to consume substances called a Vortacella (Patterson im. 232). Over all, I saw a lot more diversity on this observation then the first one.