Week 2

The first thing I noticed this week was that the aquarium seemed to have a lot more dirt in it. Upon further inspection, I realized that it was not new dirt, but old dirt that had been scattered around by the creatures. The next thing I noticed was the abundance of small circular paramecium. I also identified an unknown turbellaria. There were new algae that grew throughout the aquarium. My favorite specimens were the flatworms. They were long, clear and swimming in a swirly motion. While I was intently looking at these smaller organisms, all of the sudden a huge monster swam into view for about half a second and then darted away before I could recover before shock. I quickly searched for the organism and I found it darting around the corners of the aquarium. I hurriedly drew a sketch of the creature before it disappeared again. I identified it as a copepoda, or a Cyclops (p.490 of Pennak’s freshwater Invertebrate of the United States). I was able to see the Cyclops with my naked eye, this made it a lot easier to find because it swam so fast. I also found a much smaller Cyclops that was identical to the larger one. It moved a lot slower and I was able to get a better look at it. Much of the organisms had changed since my last view, and I was shocked at the differences.