Observation 4

Briana Sproles
Observation 4
Lab Tues. 12:20
11 November 2013

As of this past week, this has been the fourth week of observing my aquarium. Normally within the hour or two that I spend in the lab, I leave finding only one or two distinctly new species. However, this week I ran into three separate, very interesting organisms. My first discovery was the Vorticella sp. (Fig. 1), which I noticed because it seemed to rapidly "wiggle" in place, with the flagellum moving rapidly (Pennak, 1953) ). My next discovery was the Euchlanis sp., which move very quickly and independently (Pennak, 1953). I thought I was lucky to have fit two of the same species into the same picture because of their tendency to move rapidly and randomly. Thirdly, I ran into a few Nematodes sp. (Fig. 3). They acted just as most earthworms do on land, squirming in and out of the plant structures. Those that needed to be identified by a book, were identified through the book "Fresh-Water Invertebrates of the United States" by Robert W. Pennak.

Fig. 1: Vorticella sp.

Fig. 2: Euchlanis sp.

Fig. 3: Nematode sp.