Observation 1: Thursday, October20

My micro-aquarium really "took off" since the set-up.  Despite having lost a little water, the number of organisms I saw (and different kinds) was vastly greater than at first.  The most numerous things I saw were diatoms, and they seemed to be more concentrated toward the bottom of the aquarium.  There was no way to count them all, but there had to be a couple hundred, and I think they may be photosynthetic.  I didn't try to identify every organism I saw this week, but three that I did were Tachysoma, Vorticella, and Cyclidium, all of which are protists.  Dr. MacFarland showed me the contractile vacuole in the tachysoma that allows it to move so suddenly and quickly, as well as the cilia covering the perimeter of the cyclidium (he also pointed out the extra long cilia that allows it to jump suddenly).  The vorticella was most frequently observed anchored in the mud at the bottom and on free-floating debris, with cilia around its "head" to capture food.  Here are the images I took--

Fig. 233.  1996.  D.J. Patterson

Fig. 332.  1996.  D.J. Patterson

Fig. 265.  1996.  D.J. Patterson