Week 3 Observations

This week there seemed to be less life in my Microaquarium than last weeks which is odd because I expected life to prosper, not decline. I could not find the previously mentioned Cyclops, which made me sad because I spent many an hour trying to follow its erratic path. The most interesting thing I saw today was located in the thin layer of dirt at the bottom of the aquarium. It was a type of flatworm I identified in Pennak’s Freshwater Invertebrate of the U.S., but of course I cannot find where I wrote it down. I will add it later. Anyway, these worms were so long I could see their bodies through nearly every inch (or centimeter) of dirt. They were everywhere; I began to think that it was just one long one until I came across the heads of a couple. They had tiny cilia around the top of their heads. There were still a number of paramecium grazing on my algae field. Also, a long strand of algae had grown across the top of the aquarium. It seemed to be made out of x shapes put together. Another interesting thing I noted was the water line of the aquarium. At the very top there were hundreds of extremely tiny organisms floating around. I took some pictures of the aquarium also.