Observation 5

On November 11, 2011 I observed an increase in the number of colonial single celled green algae and closterium.  There were less dead organisms at the bottom of the tank, too. I did not see many coleps at the bottom of the tank, but I saw three or four in the top of it.  I could not find another philodina.

Observation 4

There were about twice as many single celled algae and diatoms.  There was also twice as many dead coleps at the bottom of the tank and less living ones swimming around.  I found a new organism as well.  It was a philodina which is a rotifer(Pennak 1989).  I only saw one of these organisms in my tank but there are probably more.

Reference:

Pennak RW. 1989  Freshwater Invertebrates of the U.S.  3rd ed.  New York (NY):  John Wiley & Sons Inc.  179 p.

3rd Observation

There were many more organisms in my micro aquarium on November 1 than there was last time because of the food pellet added at on October 21.  The pellet contained fish meal, wheat flower, soy meal, krill meal, minerals, vitamins and preservatives, and these percentages of nutrients: crude protein 36%; crude fat 4.5%; crude fiber 3.5%; moisture 8% and ash 15%.  However the stentor that I observed last time was gone without a trace.  There were a lot of dead coleps on the top layer of soil(Patterson 1998).  I also observed and photographed a live one.  The other organisms I saw were a closterium, which is a green alga, and a Pinnularia, which is a diatom(Lund 1995, Patterson 1998).

References:
D.J. Patterson. 1998.  Free Living Protozoa.  New York (NY): John Wiley and Sons Inc. 26, 163 p.

J.W.G. Lund.  1995.  Freshwater Algae: Their Microscopic World Explored. Bristol (England): Biopress Ltd. 118 p.