week 5

This week saddens me greatly. It is the last time I will be writing this blog and observing my MicroAquaruim. For the last observations of my MicroAquarium, my Rotifers did not greet me with there usual energy. The majority of them seem to be either sleeping, which I am not sure if they do, or they may be starved. The way they looked was rolled into balls in the corner where the food was (which has since completely disintegrated). As they were all huddled into this corner a few were spinning around. When they were fed a couple of weeks ago they had many babies and my population in the MicroAquarium had grown by leaps and bounds. When this population boom occurred the Rotifers devoured the food and now there is none.

The water was much more cloudy and filled with algae. The moss has grown tremendously since just last week and is currently grown out of the water towards the light. In the water, for some odd reason, there is a greater amount of air bubbles. Normally there would be one or two, but this week, there were six or more.

Last week I had mentioned the possibility of eggs in the upper corner, well this week they are still there, however they are not as many as last week. The concentration of larger rotifers is dwindling, while the little rotifer concentration is booming. More and more of the larger Rotifers have the “horn”. I am beginnining to wonder if maybe that is a stage of growth that they go through, because all the Rotifers I have witnessed this growth have been about the same size.

As the last week has came to an end I realized that I never wrote anything about the moss in my aquarium, so back to the library I went to research the moss. As I mentioned before it is Amblystegium varium (Hedw.) Lindb. from a natural spring in fountain City Park, Knox County, Tennnessee, USA (more information is included in blog week 1). Amblystegium is a small genus of mosses that grow in moist places, with various substrate. The name was derived from the Greek amblys, “blunt: and stege “lid”. This refers to the nature of opercula. The stems of these mosses are creeping and irregularly branched. The leaves are spreading and when they are dried out they become erect. They have perfect peristomes with the outer teeth united basally. These teeth are yellow to orange in color with the inner teeth being yellowish.

I don’t have much more to say, besides this blog has been fun. I hope after reading it you know more about rotifers and have mental pictures from the journey.



~Resources~
Bodenberg, E. T.. Mosses: A New Approach to the Identification of Common Species. Minneapolis, Burgess Publishing Co. 1954.