Observation session 4

My fourth observation came on Thursday, November 3. The first thing I saw, without even looking in the microscope was that a green web-like structure had formed around some of the Utricularia gibba, flowering plant. The moss plant, Amblestegium, looked a bit more shrivelled up than usual, and the beta food pellet was still present. At the first glance under the microscope, I could tell that there was not as much activity as the week before. There was not movement throughout the entire aquarium like there had been in my third observation, and I saw many more dead skeletons of organisms. The dominant species that I had been seeing were still the greatest in numbers, and were for the most part hanging around the same areas close to the food. However, despite the fact that there seemed to be a smaller number of organisms, there was undoubtedly a larger variety than before. The new organisms that I discovered seemed to be down near the dirt and sediment. I saw a large organism that seemed to be burrowing in the dirt, and also another very large organism jumping around the aquarium. I saw worm like creature, and different clear simple organisms. I unfortunately was not able to capture a picture of all of these different organisms, but there was defiantly a larger variety. The first image of a Chaetonotus (Pennalz p. 165 fig. 7) depicts a slower moving, clear-green organism, with many small flagella along its sides. The second image is of a Nematode (Pennalz p. 228 fig. 1). It is a very fast moving, worm like, organism. You can clearly see inside of it and see some of its inner make up and what it has consumed. These are just two of the many new organisms I saw that have added to the diversity of my micro-aquarium.