Micro aquarium observations for 20-24 Oct

Water used: Fountain City Duck Pond
Observations for 20-24 Oct

After observing my micro aquarium a week after it was set up, there was a huge difference with the quantity and volume of both large and small organisms.  The larger, multi cell organisms are more active and move outside of the soil more often.  The most dominant were a collection of approximately 10 long, skinny organisms that, for the most part, move more quickly and radically with out a sense of direction.  They stayed near the bottom, but not necessarily staying in the soil.  There were a few very large organisms that were particular to staying in the soil.  They moved slowly and appeared to be digging or feeding.  I saw one large, clear, multi cell organism with 4 "legs".  It stayed still, with the exception of lighting fast movements every now and then.  All of the larger organisms still stayed in the bottom of the tank, and the small single cell organisms were still found moving in a slow, lazy fashion in all areas of the aquarium.

Micro aquarium observations for 13-17 Oct

Water used: Fountain City Duck Pond
Observations for 13-17 Oct

I created my micro aquarium with water and organisms from the Fountain City duck pond in Knoxville, Tennessee.  Small samples of water and soil were extracted and placed in a small, clear slide using a pipet.  The plants Amblestegium varium and Ultricularia gibba were added to provide oxygen and diversity to the aquarium.

The observations after immediately setting up the aquarium were interesting.  There were already small, single celled organisms moving around all areas of the aquarium and larger multi cell organisms moving around in the bottom of the aquarium.  They stayed in the soil, presumably feeding, infrequently coming out just to go back in the cover of the soil again.  I am interested to see the changes in size and variety of the organisms next week.