Week 2

Week 2 Observations:
In my second week of observations there appeared to be even more movement around the plants than the week before. Some of the first insects that I observed were seed shrimp. These were the largest insects that I observed during my time of observations. They would be located anywhere from on the plants, to in the dirt. They appeared to be using some plants as their food source. They would often be down deep in the dirt in the bottom of the aquarium, where there could have possibly been other food sources. I also spotted some flagellate, which had a large tail and were transparent. One of the most interested things that i observed were ciliates. I later identified what they were exactly were with the help of a book. They were identified as peranema. Peranema are a colorless euglenid which, like most other colorless euglenids, does not readily swim, but glide along the ground. It appears to only have a single, very broad, emergent flagellum (Patterson D. 1996. Free Living Freshwater Protozoa. London, UK: Manson Publishing Ltd. 290 p.)

Patterson D. 1996. Free Living Freshwater Protozoa. London, UK: Manson Publishing Ltd. 290 p. (Figure 71 on page 52)