11/14

Upon arrival, once again, I was slightly unimpressed with the way things were panning out in the lab. The organisms in my aquarium seemed to be decreasing in quanitity, although many of the rotifers had noticeably increased in size. I also began to notice discoloration in the plant life and the water, of course, had become murky due to scattered algae and both active and still-life organisms.
However, there was a bright side. I was able to follow another flatworm for a while (below); and I also saw two extremely long nematodes, though they were somewhat insipid.

Also, one of my favorite organisms, the epistylis, which has been in my aquarium since the first observation, was present. I spent most of my time observing its miniscule mannerisms. The Epistylis (ciliated protoza) seemed very inactive; but then I tried something at the suggestion of Dr. McFarland. I tapped the glass and observed its reaction. Apparently when startled, their stalks coil, their cilia-movement is suppressed, and they nearly disappear from sight. However, only seconds later, they uncoil their stalks and their "mouth" reopens, blooming like a flower might, and their cilia become active again.

11/10

Today, after the first 10 minutes of studying my micro-aquarium, I almost came to the conclusion that all the contained organisms had died. There was very little movement, and the organisms I could identify appeared suspended. Of these still organisms were clusters of cyanobacteria (top, left), diatoms, colonial chlorophyta, a dormant nematode (top, right)and rotifer (bottom), and different types of green algae.

However, after readjusting my microscope and searching again, I found the rotifers more active than before, and they seemed to have abundantly multiplied. Most appeared in frantic movement, spiralling through the water; although some were stabilizing themselves by penetrating various surfaces with their "toe" (the unknown rotifer-appendage discussed in my previous entry). I did manage to get a good shot of a flatworm and followed it's movements for nearly five minutes.

Surprisingly the most interesting creature I observed was a type of diatom (below). I say "surprisingly" interesting because the diatoms I observed were lifeless (diatoms are unicellular algae in silica shells). I found them incredible, simply because if they had been present, they had gone entirely unnoticed in my other observations.

This is one of the reasons today's observation was so interesting; though certain organisms seemed innactive, their booming population growth was outstanding!