First Day In The Lab

When setting up the MicroAquarium, I first placed 3 colored dot stickers in a vertical layout on the left side of my glass case (McFarland, 2013).  These 3 stickers identified (from top to bottom) my lab section, table in which I sat, and seat number at that table.  I then placed my initials on the 3 stickers so that my MicroAquarium could be identified.  The water source that I used was Dean's Woods-SpringCreek located off of Woodson Dr. in Knox County, TN.  I extracted water from the bottom of the bowl with a pipet filling the tank approximately 1/3 full.  I then extracted water about midway in the bowl and filled the tank another 1/3 full.  The remaining water was drawn from the top layer of the bowl and filled the rest of the tank.  After filling the tank, I placed three different plants/mosses in my MicroAquarium to provide oxygen to the tank.  The first item I added was Fontinalis sp. Moss. which was collected from the Holston River.  The next moss was Amblestegium varium (Hedwig) Lindberg which was collected from Natural Spring at Carters Mill Park.  The final was a flowering plant known as Utricularia gibba L. which is grown in the water tanks outside of Hesler.  After all of these steps were completed, I was able to put my MicroAquarium under the microscope.  I saw quite a few things moving around (Some very small, and some large).  I did not identify any of the organisms the other day so I am unable to tell you what they were.  The large organism slithered around similar to a snake.  The small organisms looked to be some type of Nematodes.  There will be more detail after this week's observation.