Botany 111: Micro Aquarium Madness Act III

Jacob Guillen

10/29/11

Blog three

On Friday October 21, 2011, one betta food pellet (produced by Ocean Nutrition, Aqua Pet Americas), which contains fish meal, wheat flower, soy meal, krill meal, minerals, vitamins and preservatives, was placed within the micro aquarium containing water from the Fountain City Duck Pond, attracting many organisms. When I looked into the microscope on 10/25/11, there was an increase in the overall increase in every organism, which leads to my hypothesis that when a food source increases, the overall organism population will increase. I would also like to make a correction, stating that the large microorganisms that were entangled in the carnivorous Utricularia gibba L. were really buds forming on the leaves. However, there seems to be a change in the Utricularia Gibba L. since the last post. The plant seems to be curling into a certain region on the right, while the plant on the left, Amblestegium (moss), seems to be in the same position as it was placed for the first blog. Upon closer observation, I noticed that although there was a general increase in microorganism populations, it was the smaller organisms (x10 magnification) that had the largest increase. There were an abundance of organisms, called Vorticella attached to, and floating around the carnivorous plant on the right. Vorticella is a single-celled Cilliate, which is mostly sedentary, however, it is able to induce propulsion when necessary. Its natural food source is bacteria (Patterson 1996), which leads me to believe that there are quantities of bacteria around the Utricularia gibba L. plant. Another of the "small" organisms is called Halteria, which is also a single-celled Cilliate, which is found in abundance everywhere within the tank. It moves erratic bounds, free-floating from area to area, and its primary food source is algae (Patterson 1996), although there is only one specimen found at the bottom of the tank. The algae (Spyrogyra), is a sedentary autotroph (Lund ) that is a primary food source for many of the microorganisms in its ecosystem. The larger organisms (x4 magnification) had a relative population growth since last time, although it was not as much as the population of the smaller organisms (x10 magnification). For an indistinct reason, none of these organisms were attracted to light, instead, they made an attempt to keep out of the spotlight as much as possible. One in particular was the Cyclops organism, a free-floating omnivore ( feeds on plant material and dead organisms) which shot from area to area in an erratic motion (Smith 2001) was found intermittent within the tank. Another organism of the same size category is the Seed Shrimp, also a free-floater, it typically moves in the same erratic manner as its fellow organisms. Its primary food sources come from plant material and dead organisms, and on certain occasions, it has been known to feed on smaller organisms as well (Smith 2001), a possible predator to the Vorticella and Halteria organisms. There is one organism, however which is the primary predator to the rest of the medium-sized cells. The Midge Larvae (Chironamidae) is known for its voracious nature in small ecosystems such as these. It is very capable of movement if it wishes (free floater), however, it prefers to lie in wait in the sediment, for unsuspecting prey. As implied, the larvae feeds on other microorganisms, such as the Seed Shrimp and the Cyclops (Ward and Whipple 1918), which would explain the dead exoskeletons scattered around the bottom of the tank. In conclusion, I would like to hypothesize that there will be another increase in the population of the organisms, except for the midge larvae, depending whether or not the food production increases.

Works Cited

Patterson, D.J. 1996. Free-Living Freshwater Protozoa.

Smith, Douglas Grant.2001. Pennak's Freshwater Invertebrates of the United States, Fourth Edition, Porifera to Crustacea.

Ward, Henry B., Whipple George C. Freshwater Biology. 1918
Lund, Hilda C., John WG. Algae, Their Microscopic World Explored.