MicroAquarium setup and first observation

Samuel Koeshall
BIOL 111 Lab
Rebecca Wilson
October 16, 2013 Observation

MicroAquarium Setup

For my term project I have created a micro aquarium that I will be viewing every week for the next 4 weeks in Hesler 507 to observe the development of microbial creatures and their habitat in a certain water source and plant material. The first step in setting up our micro aquarium is to obtain a micro aquarium and the holder and cover for it. To identify my micro aquarium I placed colored sticker dots on to the top left corner of the micro aquarium with my initials placed onto the dots. Once I obtained the micro aquarium, Dr. McFarland instructed us in the locations the water and plant material came from and the order in which we were to place these materials into our micro aquarium. For my micro aquarium, I choose to use water from sample number 8 which refers to water obtained from the Tennessee River at a boat ramp here in Knoxville. I took organic material and water from the bottom of the sample container and placed it in my micro aquarium for the organic material to build a bottom base layer in my micro aquarium. I then took water from the middle and top of the sample container to complete a representative sample from the Tennessee River and placed it in my micro aquarium. Now my micro aquarium is 3/4 full of water from the Tennessee River. After I placed my water into my micro aquarium I then began to place three different plant samples into my micro aquarium. These plant samples that I placed into my micro aquarium are: Utriclaria gibba, Amblestegium varium, and Fontinalis sp. which is a moss. I took a few strands of each plant material for my micro aquarium.

After my micro aquarium was set up I then put the micro aquarium on a microscope to begin the initial observation of the plant material and any microbial creatures in the micro aquarium. Starting at the bottom of the micro aquarium, I saw that there has hardly any activity on the bottom layer of material. this may be attributed to the absence of chlorophyll material. As I began to move my microscope to the middle and top section of the micro aquarium I started to see activity from organisms and microbial creatures. I viewed a couple segmented worms and round worms feeding on the different plant materials. I also viewed long bodied arthropods and mosquito larvae feeding on plant materials in the same general area and plant types as the segmented worms and round worms. I believe they were located in this area because of the concentration of energy rich chlorophyll green plant material. I also noticed a few Coleps organisms moving around to top and middle section of the micro aquarium. They appear to be single celled organisms. They moved in no particular way or order but concentrated themselves in the top and middle sections. This was what I viewed this week and how I setup my micro aquarium and I am looking forward to how my micro aquarium has progressed and what I will view.