Week 3

Over the past week the number of both large organisms and small organisms increased.  New species of each were spotted.  There were many stationary diatoms and small dead organisms.

This unidentified protist showed up near the leaves of my plant to eat some algae growing there.  The front end was covered in cilia.

Six members of genus Actinosphaerium were spotted.  The spike protruding from the mucilaginous layer around the cell are known as spicules.  Five of them were connected by specialized tubing (Patterson 2013, p.169 Fig.395)

One shelled amoeba of genus Centropyxis was spotted near the middle of the tank not moving (Patterson 2013,p.95 Fig.184).

One member of Gastrotricha genus Chaetonotus was spotted swimming in the lower middle of the tank (Pennak 1989, p.165 Fig.7).

I spotted the tail end and oxygen harvesting gills of an immature annelid of genus Dero hiding among the muck at the bottom of the tank (Covich and Thorp 2009, p.399 Fig12.5).