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.