Plants in my MicroAquarium

A little update, something I've left out before is what two plants are in my MicroAquarium. Fontinalis sp. (the fuzzy plant) and Utricularia gibba L. (the flowering plant). Fontinalis is a moss that was collected from the Holston River along John Sevier Hwy under I 40 Bridge with partial shade exposure. The Utricularia gibba L. is a flowering and carnivorous plant originally from the South shore of Spain Lake on Camp Bella Air Rd. It was grown outside of the greenhouse of the Hesler Biology Building in water tanks at the University of Tennessee. All of this information on these plants comes from the "Mother Blog" by Dr. Ken McFarland. it can be found at http://botany1112013.blogspot.com/ under the post "Plants Added to MicroAquarium."

Observation #2

My MicroAquarium has a lot of life in it, and it's harder than I thought to identify all of it. Here's what I've seen so far:
Flatworm: (Platyhulminthes) Found on the fuzzy of the rwo plants in the middle water, this flatworm has a defined head. I positively ID'd it using Pennak's "Fresh-Water Invertebrates of the U.S."
Spirostomum: (a Ciliate) Found in the dirt at the bottom. I positively ID'd it using Rainis's "Guide to Microlife."
Euglena: Found near both soil and plants. It's dark green,with an open spot in the center, with a red dot in the "head." It moves slowly, and folds over itself to change direction.  Dr. McFarland identified that one for me, and I read up on it in various books.

An Introduction to My MicroAquarium

During class time this past Tuesday (10/15/22) we set up our MicroAquariums. The water I used to create my MicroAquarium was collected from French Broad River in Seven Islands Wildlife Refuge. The MicroAquariums provided have three parts; a large enclosed slide (or little "tank"), a base, and a slide-on lid. I filled the tank with water from the bottom, the middle, and the surface of the container of water provided. The bottom includes a layer of dirt, so the bottom of my MicroAquarium has about 1.5 mm of dirt from the bottom of the French Broads River. Once I had included water from all levels of the holding container, I added 2 types of plants to the tank. I wasn't able to observe much this week, but supposedly there will be more to see once all the little organisms get settled in their new home.

Every week, I will be observing the MicroAquarium and blogging about the microorganisms I observe!