November 12th, 2008 - Observations

The aquarium seems to have many more diatoms in almost every spot. Many are alive but even more appear to be dead while others feed on them. Astereinella were also spotted along the edge of the tank. They are the star shaped diatoms that are not motile and there for must be attached to something. A second midge was also located from where I thought it would be considered out of place. It was up in the plants at the top of the aquarium. It appeared to be slightly smaller than the other midge that I have been following. They both seem to continue to grow larger (not fully visible under low power 40x) and more defined as well as gaining a more brown color. When I looked at the midge under 100x i realized that there were microorganisms attached to the midge like the smaller fish sticking with a shark. The bag traps also seem to be consuming more organisms and growing more defined. The algae and protozoa have seemed to jumped in number as well. I can watch them feeding on other protozoa and diatoms at the bottom of the tank. I was unable to identify it but there has been an abundance of a filamentous colony of photosynthetic organisms that are motile.

Cyanobacteria


"Mushroom Cap"


Synedra


"Bag Traps"

Midge

November 7th, 2008 - Observations

Over all growth in the aquarium seems to be more abundant, especially the vegetation. The bag traps seem to have grown much larger as well and the sensor hairs are much more defined and spread out. Some of the traps have organisms inside of them and others appear blue. cyanobacteria is also everywhere and seems much brighter green than before. The midge is also still hanging around in his usual place at the edge of the sedimate. He has grown much larger, so large that he's not fully visible in the microscope on low power (40x). His insides are visible to the point that I can even see what he has been eating. He also seems to be much more active. The dead remains of diatoms are also visible everywhere. Many of these are located at the bottom of the aquarium. I also found some "mushroom cap" looking organisms (pictured below). I found some interesting, live diatoms that i identified as Gyrosigma which is brownish yellow and native to East Tn,, also pictured below. Synedra were also found and pictured below. they are multiple diatoms connected at one point and they don't have raphes so they can't move.