Week 3

(Fig. 1)-Colpidium-(Hartmut 1972)
p. 79 

This week I was able to notice even more activity taking place in my microaquarium. Last week, we received an email from Dr. McFarland stating that a food pellet of  "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% had been placed inside the aquariums, which seems to explain the increase in activity. The first new organism I noticed was identified as a cilliate and more specifically a Colpidium, which eat bacteria and small flagellates (Fig. 1) (Bick 1972). I then noticed several new objects swimming around, which were identified as amiboi organisms, and more specifically, Difflugia pyriformis (Fig. 2) (Leidy 1879). These organisms swim and ingest granules from around it. Finally, I viewed a slender, slug like organism moving about, which I was able to identify as a Gastrotricha (Fig. 3) (Smith 2001).

(Fig. 2)-Difflugia pyriformis-(Leidy 1879)
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(Fig. 3)-Gastrotricha-(Smith 2001)
p.126