My last day with my little MicroAquarium™ was, without a doubt, the most interesting. The environment was the first thing I observed. The soil seemed to be stable, so whatever was munching on it must have decreased in numbers. The water level was even less, and in it's place was a dusty surface. Plant B was starting to fully brown and was rapidly dying. The reason for this is unknown, but I'm assuming it was running out of food.
After observing the aquarium itself, I looked into the microscope to see my little community. What a thriving community it was! The diatoms had completely taken over. They're everywhere and in every shape and species. It was impossible to identify them all.
The Euglena have taken quite a hit in their own version of 2012. Their corpses were what created the dusty area. One thing I did notice (aside from the mass suicide of these little guys by jumping ship) was some new Euglena. I couldn't properly observe their corpses for their habits, but I did identify them as Euglena helicoideus from Figure 386 in Handbook of Algae by Herman Silva Forest.
The Flatworms are still present in smaller numbers. I could only find one Cyclops, but the other ones could be hiding. There were several juvenile Ostracods and twice as many juvenile Gastrotrichs.
One other new guy was Coleochaete orbicularis, a green algae, identified from Figure 75 of Algae of Illinois by Lewis Hanford Tiffany and Max Edwin Britton. It looked like a circle of, well, green circles. These were highly populated around the soil.
All of these new discoveries made me sad to say good-bye. However, it is time.
Au revoir, mes amis!
Sources:
Canker-Lund, Hilda and John W.G. Lund. Freshwater Algae. Biopress Ltd.: Bristol, 1995.
Egmond, Wim van and Dave Walker. "Pond Life Identification Kit." 2000. Microscopy UK. 20 October 2009.
Forest, Herman Silva. Handbook of Algae. University of Tennessee: Knoxville, 1954.
Tiffany, Lewis Hanford and Max Edwin Britton. Algae of Illinois. University of Chicago: Chicago, 1952.
Patterson, D.J. Free-Living Freshwater Protozoa. Manson Publishing: London, 1992.
Prescott, G.W. Fresh-water Algae. W.M. C. Brown Company: Dubuque, 1954.
Rainis, Kenneth G. and Bruce J. Russell. Guide to Microlife. Franklin Watts: Danbury, 1996.
Round, F.E. et. al. The Diatoms. Cambridge: Cambridge, 1990.
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