Hey, guys! I'm back for my second post on this blog. I have had 21 page views since my last post. It may not sound exciting to you, but for me, it feels awesome!!
Here's a little note on last week's blog, and more specifically about the water source. The water used in my MicroAquarium was collected this year. I, unfortunately, cannot find the email that has the exact date (I din't know where exactly it disappeared to) but it was collected this year. Sorry for any confusion, and thank you to my lab TA, the awesome Ms. Rebecca Wilson, for letting me know that I didn't put the right date in my last post.
Special Note (Added 11/23/13): There was a Beta Food Pellet added to this MicroAquarium on October 25, 2013.
"Atison's Betta Food" made by Ocean Nutrition, Aqua Pet Americas, 3528 West 500 South, Salt Lake City, UT 84104. Ingredients: Fish meal, wheat flower, soy meal, krill meal, minerals, vitamins and preservatives. Analysis: Crude Protein 36%; Crude fat 4.5%; Crude Fiber 3.5%; Moisture 8% and Ash 15%." (McFarland, 2013)
Anyways, now I'm just going to jump right in because I have some completely exciting news to tell you!!
My Beloved MicroAquarium
I found life inside my MicroAquarium!!!
I know, I know, I know. I understand what you're thinking to yourselves: Isn't that the point? Has this girl gone completely crazy?
But this life is pretty awesome.
So, let me tell you how I found my wonderful little friend before I actually introduce him to you.
When I first began looking at my MicroAquarium through the microscope, I really didn't see much of anything. There were no little Protists floating or rushing around. No cyclops like everybody else seemed to have. There was actually no movement at all.
But then, out of the corner of my eye, I caught a little bit of movement. Excited, I move the aquarium around so I could get a better look, and I found a beautiful little Rotifer. Now, I actually couldn't get a picture of this one, so the poster in the Lab will just have to do.
Okay, I know, not much to look at, huh? But it was something. It took me awhile to figure out exactly what it was, because I spent lie ten minutes just watching this thing move around. I didn't care, I had a living organism.
I found several more of them (okay, actually quite a few, like six or seven more plus the first one) as I continued to look around the plants. I even took a few minutes to look around the mud at the bottom to see if maybe I could find DiNozzio, but all of my effort were in vain.
Until I took a chance and looked around the very far sides of the aquarium, where the microscope had a tough time going.
And suddenly, I saw it.
Movement, on one of the leaves. At first I thought it might be another Rotifer, as I'd seen more than my fair share of them during the hour and a half I was in the lab. But upon closer inspection, I realized I had something much more awesome on my hands.
I had a MIDGE!!!!!!
Midge Head
Midge Tail
Okay, so let me explain what exactly a Midge is, because I had absolutely no clue when I first found him. And who knows, maybe its actually DiNozzio who I saw on the first day. I guess we may never know the answer to that questions.
*facepalm* I really need to stop chasing rabbit trails. So, back to what a Midge is...
A Midge is a fly larvae, more specifically, a Midge Fly larvae (who could have guessed that?). According to a page called "Determining Water Quality using Aquatic Macroinvertebrates" found on bluevalleyk12.org, midge fly larvae are found in all kinds of water and "indicate organic enrichment" when found in large numbers.
The best page that I could find about it, though, is EcoSpark (found at http://www.ecospark.ca/changingcurrents/midge). It tells a lot about the midge fly larvae. In this blog, I am not going to go into a whole ton of particulars, except for what I mentioned above. If you would like to read more about it, EcoSpark has got you covered.
Additionally, here's the picture of a midge from the poster in the Lab.
Thank you so very much Dr. McFarland for helping me identify my little Midge larvae!!
Let me tell you, he is a very interesting little fellow. He would stay still for a little bit, probably eating or maybe thinking about eating, the he would thrash wildly around for a little bit. He liked to hide under the leaf so I couldn't get a good picture of him for a while. Maybe he's camera shy!
So, right now, this is my baseline for how many organisms I have in my MicroAquarium. Most of my little lovelies here like to stay in the middle layer of the aquarium, near the plants. The Rotifers absolutely adore the plants, as does my little Midge friend here. So far, I don't have any dead organisms.
So, I think that's about it for this week. I'll be posting so about what I find when I check it next, so stay tuned for more exciting adventures in the MicroAquarium!!
Oh, and since Halloween (aka My Favorite Holiday!) is coming up so soon, I thought I would leave you with a couple of things that are awesome and Halloweeny at the same time, to give you a bit of a break from all of the "How you say? Scientific," (The King and I) stuff.
The pumpkin carving of the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo is actually my pumpkin carving from this year (thanks to my parents for helping me carve it at 8:00 at night)!
So, that's it for the second post of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Botany Experiment. Thanks for reading!!
Alison Dyke, signing off!
P.S. Comments are much appreciated!!
P.S.S. I found the comment about the date. It was a comment on my previous post instead of an email. The date collected was 10/13/2013.
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