A Farewell

This post reflects my last day noting the organisms in the microaquarium. 
Firstly, If found a large seed shrimp near the middle of Plant B.  It was scary to note because it crept into view only as I changed the focus, and looked large and lurking.  However, it was completely stationary.  It had a degree of opaqueness and was resting in along the plant and was almost hidden by it.  If it was dead or not I could not discern while in the lab because as a whole most of my organisms have been moving more slowly with time.  Thus, I will not claim that it was dead.  Internal activity did seem slow so it was most likely not actively eating.

Scrolling over to the right, by Plant A I noted again the large amount of tiny algae that permeated the background.  I also found multiple closterum.  Some were living, as denoted by the presence of chlorophyll, whereas others I found were dead and lacked any color.  The closterum without chlorophyll had not necessarily sunk much further down than the living closterum, but rather remained suspended in the water. 

In total I found four different annelids while in the lab.  It was sad to see them move so slowly.  The longest one was extremely slow moving and I found it where the food pellet had been dropped a few weeks prior.


There was also an abundance of cladocerans still.  This week I used a microscope that had not been connected to the computer monitors for blown up images, and perhaps this slightly zoomed out effect helped me to notice more cladocerans.  Regardless, they were present swimming around both plants and in between as well.  Their movement did seem slower too, but the abundance was fascinating as I could spot up to four in a single view. 

One of the most interesting finds was a beautiful cyclopoid.  Its symmetry was remarkable and the long hanldebar mustache shaped pair of antennae was very pronounced.  My specimen was found face down on the mud below Plant A.  Its bowels seemed to be slowly contracting, almost with the rhythm of lungs breathing very slowly.  This movement was the only clue that it was even alive because in every other way it was motionless.  The movement of the innards was back-and-forth with motion moving towards the head and back to the bottom of its body. 

Suddenly, it moved!  It took a quick snap motion with its head and then become stationary once more.  Fascinated by the change of pace I kept watching.  According to my observations movement was limited to every minute or so whereby it would take another snap, and sometimes to sequentially, before remaining motionless again for about the length of another minute.

 One more observation about my cyclopoid was its eye spot.  It was unmistakeably red.  It was visible even during its movements because despite the body getting in the way sometimes it would show through the mostly translucent body.   
  
 I will always wonder how went the stories of my little organisms.  However, this represents just a few milliliters pond water and already there was so much visible life to be seen.  I have a greater appreciation for the abundance and complexity of these organisms.  They actually seemed more recognizable than I at first imagined.  For example chlorophyll, predators, shells, shrimps, worms. etc.  There is a lot more living occurring around me than I used to fathom!