fourth observation

I finally had time to stay after lab and take some pictures of these little buggers. Hopefully this will work. During this last observation there was less water and a lot less creatures to be seen. It took a lot of time to find some good ones.


I eventually saw quite a few of these Planaria. Planaria are non-parasitic faltworms common to many parts of the world, living in both saltwater and freashwater ponds and rivers. These animals move by beating cilia, allowing them to glide along on a film of mucus. Some move by undulations of the whole body by the contractions of muscles built into the body wall. They had very unpredictable motions and were hard to photograph.










Besides seeing many planaria, I saw lots of rotifers. That's this little guy below. The rotifer swam around quite rapidly and erratic. It fed on algae and bacteria.















The next pictures are of more planaria and a nematode. There is also a large worm-like organism that I couldn't i.d.

make-up third observation

Well, I missed a week in observing; but my kind lab instructor is giving us all a break. What I have noticed in my micro-aquarium is that many of the larger creatures observed the last 2 times are all gone. I guess the either died or are hiding. This time I can see Halteria, they are organisms that have wavy, spindles coming off of a circular body. I actually noticed nematodes and spyrogyra this time. There is plenty of green algae as well. All of the dirt and scum has settled to the bottom. The plants seem to be doing well. There are still lots of tiny organisms that swim way to fast to catch and are way too small. No time for those critters.

second observation

There is a lot less movement this time, even though I fed the little buggers last week. I did see lots of protozoa. There was a clear "lobster" like creature, I think it was a water flea or something like that. I also viewed a crustacean, a Copepod. It swam around a lot and ate several things. I also viewed a roundworm ( nematode ) as well. There was not much water in the micro-aquarium, so I had to add quite a bit more. Hopefully I will post a picture this coming up week.