week three with photos

This week I added a bit of water to my aquarium and noted that there are still some green branches on my dying plants, perhaps indicating that some are getting enough light and nutrients to survive. Under the microscope I noticed a dramatic increase in the number of diatoms (mostly pennularia as identified last week) and an increase in the number of rotifera. For the first time I saw an amoeba and several paramecia (photographed and to be added next week). What appear to be the hyphae of water molds are the webbing I noted last week. I was also able to identify an epilaxis* but it was moving too fast to photograph.














The images above are vorticella sp.* in its free swimming form and attached to part of the plant.













The figure above is the rotifer euchlanis***. There are a lot of these in my micro-aquarium.


* Patterson, DJ. Free Living Freshwater Protozoa. Washinton, DC: Manson, 2009. 141.
** ibid. 113.
***Smith, Douglas Grant. Pennak's Freshwater Invertebrates of the United States. New York: Wiley and Sons, 2001. 143.

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