November 10
(FIND SOURCES AT BOTTOM OF BLOG IN BIBLIOGRAPHY POST)

My final week of observations saw little change in many of the forms of life except for the huge growth of diatoms. The population of Seed shrimp continued to grow, alongside rotifers and cyclops. I observed more plant growth in the aquarium this week as well.

A list of the things I observed this week:

-Seed shrimp continue to be the most populous crustacean in the aquarium. I counted ten this week.



Photo reference: Seed-shrimp [updated 2003]

-The cyclops population remains pretty stable. I observed about 5.

Photo reference: Morgan [updated 1996]

-I spotted one nematoad swimming around in the debris at the bottom of the aquarium.
-I observed six more rotifers in the open water, and one more jelly tube rotifer on a piece of plant fiber.
-A gigantic amount, possibly thousands, of gold, pill-shaped diatoms populating the open water of the aquarium.



-The diatoms were gold colored and mostly free floating, with some clusters scattered about in a few places. They are an oval, pill shape which after further investigation led me to believe that they belonged to Cyclotella badonica (Vinyard 1979). However Dr. McFarland and I were unable to confirm this and the diatom remains unidentified. Photo reference: Vinyard 1979

November 3
(FIND SOURCES IN BIBLIOGRAPHY POST AT BOTTOM OF PAGE)

During the 4th week of observations I continued to notice more plant growth, still dark green among most of the plant fibers in the aquarium. The things I observed this week were:

-Strange, brown balls on two of the leaves with a small black portion on the underside.

-I continued to count an increasing number of seed shrimp, of which I counted eleven this week.

Photo reference: Seed-shrimp [updated 2003]

-Trap leaves are still present
-I noticed small orange fragments (maybe bacteria or debris) scattered about in the open along with a large amount of yellowish-green cellular organisms grouped together.


-Somehow I did not notice as many rotifers as I had in previous weeks, although I was not looking out for them in particular, I did count about 5.
-I did notice a larger amount of cyclops than I did last week. This week I counted six.

Photo reference: Morgan [updated 1996]

-I noticed a few worms of varyous sizes and styles of movement. I spotted a large worm in the debris at the bottom of the aquarium, as well as many, about six, small black worms with a very "high frequency" movement.
-As I said before, I did not count as many rotifers as I did in the previous week, but I also noticed several what I believe to be empty jelly tubes
-I did not spot any more spirogyra algae, but noticed some algae in the open water of the aquarium in a branched, sprawled out shape.



-The most interesting organism that I observed this week that I hadn't seen before in the aquarium was a large swimming creature that I soon identified as a Cladocera, or water flea (Ward and Whipple 1918). Cladocera are crustaceans that feed on phytoplankton. They use their large antennae to move around in the water. There are over 400 species of these organisms! (Cladocera [updated 2004]). Photo reference: Ward and Whipple 1918