Day 1: The Set Up

Wednesday my lab finally got to create our Micro-aquarium™ term project. I am very excited to discover what is floating around in my little tank and see how each organism works!  I decided to use the pond water from the University of Tennessee Hospital because I thought it may prove to be full of life, with the storm sewer sediment supplying the pond.  The pond has full sun exposure and the water was collected on Oct. 9, 2011 at Cherokee Trail. Knox Co. Knoxville (GPS:N35 56.305 W83 56.717 850 ft). (McFarland, 2012).

UT Hospital Pond

   The first day we just assembled the aquariums and added our water and plants.  I chose to add both of the plant specimens, I added mostly Amblestegium sp. which is a moss, and has partial shade exposure.  It was collected from Natural spring at Carters Mill Park, Carter Mill Road, Knox Co. TN. (McFarland, 2012) and I also decided to put one strand of Utricularia gibba L. in as well. It is a flowering carnivorous plant (McFarland, 2012).

My Micro-Aquarium™tank

Once the tank was assembled I put it under a microscope to observe what is happening in the beginning of the four weeks.  There were some small white organisms that I could see with my eyes and no microscope, but being up close is much better.  There were many little green dot organisms that moved rapidly around in the water, and appeared to be "attacking" the larger organisms.  The most interesting thing I saw was four horn shaped organisms that appeared to just grow out of the sediment.  They had cilia that were around the bell shape and they would move back and forth like they were in a windy field.  Unfortunately I did not get to identify them, but next week's observation should help me figure it out.

Bibliography

Botany 111 Fall 2012 (Blog). Watersource: 7. University of Tennessee Hospital (cited 2012 October 23).  Available from: http://botany1112012.blogspot.com/