Blog Entry Two

Today, while observing my MicroAquarium, I found a roundworm.  Roundworms are also known as nematodes.  When they are found in freshwater, they are almost always less than a centimeter long.  The one I found was at the bottom of the aquarium, burrowing in some dirt.  It was hanging out in a tube, and was trying to move it around.  Its mouth was a sucker, and was consuming things it found in the dirt.  According to Freshwater Invertebrates of the United States, a roundworm's mouth is "characteristically surrounded by lips, each with a small papilla on its summits,"(Pennak, 1989).  Papilla, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, is "a small projecting body part similar to a nipple in form," (Merriam-Webster, 2013).

Here is the roundworm that I observed, just hanging out in a tube.

Blog Entry One

Set Up

To set up the MicroAquarium, there were already prepared materials.  These included a pre-made plexiglass slide, a base to stand it up, and a cap.  We started out by putting a coded set of stickers on the aquarium, so we could identify each of our own.

Water Source

The water source I used in my aquarium was from the Holston River.  This is along the John Sevier Highway, underneath the I40 Bridge. (McFarland, 2013)

Plants

I added two types of plants.  The first was Utricularia Gibba from Spain lake, Camp Bella.  The second was from the Holton River, and was called Fontinalis Sp.  (McFarland, 2013)

Organisms

There were two different organisms that I viewed.  The first one I couldn't identify.  It moved very quickly, and never slowed down enough for me to see it.  The second is what our instructor called a rotifer.  It was a semi-transparent organism, with one end being the mouth.  It was worm like in my opinion.  It hung out around the mosses.