Week Three Observations

For my week three observations, I went in on Thursday November 6, 2014.  Before I arrived I expected to have another outstanding week like week two.  The abundance of life had skyrocketed that week due to the beta food pellet.  To my surprise, my observation was quite a let down.  The more I looked through the microscope, the more dead creatures I was finding.  They had destroyed the food pellet and had no food left.  Although, it was pretty interesting being able to observe some organisms eating the ones that had died out.  The amount of creatures in my microaquarium had definitely deteriorated, but there was still many to observe.  One of my favorite creatures during the observation was the Limnias Rotifer (seen below).

The rotifer was a pretty cool organism.  The two antenna-like parts of it have hairs that will rotate in the motion of a chainsaw, creating a sucking effect in the water.  I could see particles flowing directly into it.  For the entire time that I looked at him, the rotifer remained stationary.

The next organism that I looked at was an amoeba (seen below).

The amoeba was really fun to watch.  The way it moved was incredible.  It would wiggle its body in a very random fashion to get moving.  It wasn't the easiest task in the world to get the picture, but he stopped for a couple of seconds giving me the opportunity.

I'm curious to see how much life will have died off by my next observation.  I can only predict that the organisms left will be the ones that are self producers or feed off of decomposing bodies.  To my surprise the plant life in the microaquarium is still flourishing.  I thought that they would start to die by now.  Hopefully there will still be something to look at when I come in next time.  I'll just have to wait and see.