Observation #5

Well... here I am at my final blog post for my MicroAquarium! I really should not be putting an exclamation point due to this project being "bitter sweet"-- this project was really starting to really shape up to be a cool project to do! I was amazed at the growth changes in my MicroAquarium over the past 4 weeks, it was crazy to even think how fast time really does move!

Anyhow, today I was really excited to go into lab and do our final lab observation.  I was most curious about how much growth and life form changes would have happened in its final week of "rest" without any observations.  I decided to use a regular compound microscope for my final observation, mostly due to the fact that I thought that my last weeks observations were really cool, fun, and different to look at than my previous three had been- so I decided to stick with the regular compound microscope so that I would see the best "overall" change and result of my MicroAquarium.

However, I guess I will break that sad news that my final observation did not go as accord to plan/hopes as I would have liked for them to go... I was hoping for some crazy things to happen and be able to see a massive growth of my MicroAquarium but unfortunately that did not happen.  I am not sure if what I saw was not in enough detail and my "massive growth" that I was looking for really did happen, just on a very small microorganism level.  For the only "major" organism that I was able to see was the my Cyclops sp. friend  from last week.  However, there was a more hope established and excitement raised when I did make a new discovery to my MicroAquarium- the Ostracods sp. or commonly called a Seed Shrimp!

The Ostracod sp. orgamism took up a lot of my time in just amazement in watching him/her move throughout the water. Reading "Guide to Microlife" by Rain & Russell confirmed my observation in that what I was observing was actually a Ostracod sp., given that the information provided to me confirmed the shape 'like a flatten seed', the movement as 'a slow creep to rapid bouncing or scurrying' and having 'bivalved shells' (Rains, Russell, 210).  I was really fascinated by the- what I would call- 'fingers/legs' of the Ostracod sp. and how much they looked and behaived like an actual shimp that I am used to seeing, yet alone eat!

Even though I did spend most of my time watching the Ostracod sp. I was able to take a picture of it from my phone, through the objective lens, and post it below to the blog, hence why I am unable to post 'Andrew Valk' and 'Ostracod sp.' text right upon the picture itself.  Mostly, however, I really did not see the level microorganism life that I was hoping to observe, which I guess is a good thing! Meads Quarry could indeed be less occupied by microorganisms that I had originally thought it would be!

Overall, I had a great time observing my MicroAquarium over these now past 5 weeks.  I really enjoyed actually seeing what kind of life forms was actually out there and being able to identify them and take pictures of them! I wish the best for my little critters in my MicroAquarium- for the odds be ever in your favor! Good luck, thanks for the memories, and I am sure I will be encountering you again sometime very soon in my lifetime!

Above- An ostracods or more commonly called a Seed Shrimp.  Picture taken through the objective lens of my microscope.

Observation #4

 

I was super excited to come in today and observe my MicroAquarium after another week of sitting in Hesler Biology lab.  I was curious to (hopefully) see if more activity would be present, in terms of organism growth and development.

 

 

However, as most scientist know, our experiments do not usually go accordingly as we think, and that is what happened to me today during my observation.  As I arrived in the lab room where the MicroAquariums were being kept, I noticed that all of the microscopes that had cameras attached to them were taken and that there was a line of 2 deep on most microscopes, so I had to settle for a regular compound microscope without a camera for the first time during my observations of my MicroAquarium.  I was a little bit "bummed" out since I would not be able to observe really closely ,and thus in detail, the organisms that I had in my MicroAquarium, due to the fact that the microscopes with cameras attached had a line on each one.  However, we can't "win" at everything!

 

Nevertheless, I was actually super glad that I got to not use the camera microscopes because once I sat down with my MicroAquarium on the regular compound microscope (the one without the cameras attached) I got to observe my MicroAquarium  from a different "angle" and viewpoint than what I have done previously on during my observations.  It was actually like looking at a brand new and different MicroAquarium! Whenever I used the camera microscope, I was always looking for the smallest details and organisms present and trying to capture a photograph of them with them camera.  I guess one can say that I had a "narrow mindset" and was thinking to small.  Luckly, my mind was able to change directions today from viewing strictly from the regular compound microscopes!

 

Right away, I was able to really see my MicroAquarium from the large point of view.  I was no longer focusing on the smallest organisms or trying to zoom in on the leaves of my Amblestegium varium,   Fontinalis sp. moss , or the plant Utricularia gibba L. species (McFarland, 2013).  Rather,  I was able to take a broader look at the plants, mosses, and organisms from "above', if you will, and that made my observation so much better! Even though I was able to see physically a lot organisms that I could not make out with detail what they were exactly or how their body structure was set up- thus making me not be able to identify 99% of the organisms that I saw- I still loved being able to observe my MicroAquarium from this different point of view.

 

 

It did see like though that there was a lot of activity present in the MicroAquarium and that I did have a lot of smaller organisms moving around the MicroAquarium.  I found this really fascinating and it taught to not focus on the details as  much, because in the grand scheme of things, you could miss so much or even your goal/objective of your experiment if you focus strictly on one aspect of your project/experiment.  However, with saying that, I was able to locate, distinguish, and identify with Dr. McFarland's help the Cyclops sp.  that was moving around in the bottom left of my MicroAquarium, right above the soil that I extracted from the Mead's Quarry water sample container in week one (Crook and McFarland, 2013).   After many unsuccessful attempts, I was able to finally capture a good picture with my camera on my phone through the objective lens on my compound microscope! Hey-- I was really pleased and excited that I was able to do this, for it is a lot harder than it looks!  I was not able to type "Cyclops sp."  nor "Andrew Valk" on the picture itself due to me uploading it from my phone and not the computer, so hopefully my word and trust will do in that I took this picture myself from my camera!

 

 

Overall, I think the Cyclops sp. was the "big highlight" of my observation-- mostly due to that fact that it was the first time that I noticed this organism in my MicroAquarium and I was able to successfully take a picture of it through the objective lens --even though being able to view my MicroAquarium from this different landscape orientation was pretty neat in itself! Overall, I had a really successful observation #4 and I hope that they will continue to get better and better as time goes along! 

Picture above is a Cyclops sp. taken from my phone through the microscope lens (objective).