Week 1

The first time I looked at the micro aquarium I wasn't sure what I was looking at, but here are my observations for that viewing anyway. The water clarity wasn't very good due to some turbidity being present post aquarium creation. I did see some microbial life, but not as much as I had thought I would see. Most of the active life was seen on or near the bottom muck layer. I was able to identify three organisms which also happened to be the most prevalent, rotifera, ostracoda, and daphnia. The rotifers are small brownish creatures that move in a fast spiral motion. The ostracoda or seed shrimp where large bean shaped creatures which short flagella moving around its body in a saw like motion. The one I saw seemed to be stuck and as such was motionless but was trying to escape. The daphnia or water flea was a large shrimp like creature that is mostly clear in color and had what appeared to be two appendages near its head. It was motionless for the duration of my viewing but im told it was most likely feeding by a method known as gradient feeding.

Aside from the active life in the aquarium i was able to see many long spiral algae which where mainly found in or around the bottom layer but where also seen in the middle layer as well.