October 28th Observations

On October the 24th, one "Atison's Betta Food" food pellet was added to the tank. It is made by Ocean Nutrition, Aqua Pet Americas, 3528 West 500 South, Salt Lake City, UT 84104. Ingredients: Fish meal, wheat flower, soy meal, krill meal, minerals, vitamins and preservatives. Analysis: Crude Protein 36%; Crude fat 4.5%; Crude Fiber 3.5%; Moisture 8% and Ash 15% (McFarland, 2014). 

This week I saw a lot more activity which is probably due to the addition of food resources for the microorganisms. To start, I noticed several accounts of cyanobacteria. These were visible the first week but I did not realize that they were cyanobacteria. I saw one cyclops this time around as opposed to the three I observed last week. I observed one specimen of Filamentis. This was the first week that this particular specimen was observed. I also saw for the first time two Ameoba. These almost shapeless beings are slow moving seem to morph into other glob-like shapes and seemed to be found around my plant samples mostly. Oct. 28 was the first time I saw the Ameoba as well as two specimen of Centroplex Ameoba (McFarland, 2014). These are circular in shape and have what look like multiple spikes coming from the outside of the circle. This was also the first time I observed one Euplotis. I found two seed shrimp, which were also observed last week. I observed 8 Vorticella (Patterson, 1992 #23) for the first time. One Zygnema was observed for the first time as well. These are green in color an have chloroplasts. Two Stentor were observed and one was captured on film (Patterson, 1992 Fig. 216). The Stentor have cilia that seem to move around the edge of the 'funnel' of the Stentor.  I very interestingly observed one Sphaerozosma. This Desmid is green in color and shaped like a rectangle. I captured a photo of this microorganism and will post it ASAP. Much like last weeks observations I found several (Probably around 6 or 7) Euchlanis. Also observed was one water flea (Seen last week as well), and one Gastrotricha that was seen for the first time (Rainis and Russell, 1996 pg. 177).

I was able to capture pictures of several of these microorganisms and a video of the Stentor which will be posted as soon as they are processed and edited. All organisms were observed between the hours of 3:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m.