Observation #2

 

Today was my first 'real' observation of my MicroAquarium using a light microscope and taking notes on what I saw.  I can say that I was pretty excited in finally getting to see everything in my MicroAquarium for a longer period of time and really studying in detail what I observed! I am also going to assume that as I continue along in this blog, my posts will become more in depth and I will be able to start to get what I need to in these as I start to figure out what I need to look for and what I can find in my MicroAquarium over time, so bear with be for these first couple of weeks!

 

 

It should be known that science experiments do not always go as planned ... or expected, and that was the case today in my first 'real' observation.  I was hoping to be able to really see some good organisms in my MicroAquarium using the light microscope, but even when  I switched to the light microscope that had a camera on it, I was still unable to be successful in finding a lot of organisms and life forms in my MicroAquarium.  However, one of the most noticeable organisms in my MicroAquarium was the Colpidium species, which the video below shows their movement and body system by using the light microscope with a camera.  Dr. McFarland and I managed to locate many 'families/groups' around the MicroAquarium.  Colpidiums have a mouth, ciliary organelles, and most noticeably- both a large vacuole and a contractile vacuole near the center of the cell (Patterson, 171). One other distinguishing feature of Colpidiums  that we were able to take notice of, and thus, help distinguish that it was a Colpidium was both is macro- and micro- nucleus along with the cilia that it has on the outer rim of its body (Patterson, 1996).

 

 

My observations and time mostly during this observation was spent on watching the groups of Colpidiums and learning about the light microscope with the camera attached, along with the system that it operates under.  I was able to successfully take a couple of pictures and insert the video below of Colpidiums into my blog- hopefully it will provide a good representation of what Colpidiums look like and a fun way to learn!