Thriving Organisms Week 3

Identified in book Free Living Fresh Water Protozoa, page 124, Figure 261.

I have several of these Euplotes in the aquarium. They don't seem to be restricted to any one region of the tank. They roam about freely and move very swiftly. They are in the soil, near plants, and when the betta food pellet was added they were among the main consumers.

Identified in the book Free Living Fresh Water Protozoa, page 132-133. Figures 285-287

Identified in the book Fresh Water Invertebrates of the United States: Protozoa to Mollusca, page 282. Figure 16. 

This is my prized possession, a hydra. I last saw it on October 31, 2013 and despite much time spent looking for it today I was unable to locate it. Dr. McFarland and I spent some time researching to identify it. They seem to be a bite rare, some of the books only contained a page or two of information. This particular one is obviously a juvenile and there is a large part of the body that is not visible as it is in the soil. There also appears to be a fungi blooming from the soil to the right of the Hydra. I will attempt to identify it next week.

Today, November 05, 2013, I located an interesting worm in the center of the tank (not pictured). He seemed to have his head out and moving about from side to side digging around the plants and what I believe is algae that has begun to form, as if he were eating. After observing him I realized that he was in a tube of some sort. As I became more curious I followed his body/tube and discovered a split tail at the opposite end. He was indeed within a tube. He briefly retracted back into the tube at both ends and them reemerged with his head where his tail previously was. My little contortionist is a Duro!

Another organisms that is plentiful is one called Urocentrum. I have never seen anything move so fast. They seem to spine constantly. Urocentrum's are translucent with genetic material moving around the cell.

The microscope I used to take the digital photos is also a MicroMaster by Fisher but it has a video camera attached to it and it is marked # 96 also located in the Hessler Biology Building in room 507.