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