This week saw a considerable amount of change in terms of amount of organisms. There were abundant algae and similar colonial bacteria. Plant A and Plant B both appeared to be doing just fine, and seemed to be popular among other organisms; both plants and the food pellet were surrounded. I saw plenty of one-celled organisms, including many trachelophyllium, but could not get a good picture of any of them. I was, however, able to get great pictures of several other organisms.
This juvenile cyclops was slow-moving enough for me to get a great shot of him:
I was also able to get a great shot of a rotifer:
In addition to these two common denizens, my aquarium was littered with a new type of organism that I hadn't seen before. These urchin-shaped protozoa are known as actinosphaeria. This picture is a rotifer coming into contact with an actinosphaerium.
Actinosphaerium (Patterson 1992)
Last week I was able to get pictures of a green alga, a zygnema, and an oedogonium. This week, I was able to get an extremely clear shot of a green algal cell, and a great picture of mougeotia. At times it is difficult to tell the difference between these two, but mougeotia are typically more spiraled and their chloroplasts are twisted, giving the irregular shape to the green tint shown below.
Green alga (Frost 1954)
Mougeotia (Frost 1954)
Finally, this week I was able to find a brown, spherical one-celled organism. Dr. McFarland believed this to be an amoeba, noting the irregular shape around the borders of the cell.
Difflugia (Patterson 1992)
I am excited, as this is the first really unique organism I have found. I cannot wait to see what I can find next week.
Frost, HS. 1954. Handbook of Algae, with special reference to Tennessee and the Southeastern United States. Knoxville (TN): University of Tennessee Press. p 198, and figures 219 & 401.
Patterson, DJ. 1992. Free Living Freshwater Protozoa: A Colour Guide. Washington D.C.: Manson Publishing. p. 95
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