october 20, 2009 micro-aquarium first observations

Today I set up and did my first observations of the micro-aquariums. I enjoyed seeing all of the little organisms and just watching what they do: what their movements look like, where they go, if they even got stuck in the sediment at the bottom of the aquarium. I did not notice organisms animals eating other animals, yet I did see a few animals "eating" food. For instance, there was one with almost a heart shaped head cut in half.It had a long slender body that was definitely a annelida because of it's body movements.It siphoned in alot of water and pushed most of it back out. It was trying to get food sucked in with the water. It looked real neat and I could see many little algae particles get caught in its current out in front of its head. Then the algae particles would get pushed right back out through where gills would be on a fish.

I also noticed that when organisms of various sizes bumped into eachother they merely kept going, not even pretending to notice the other organism or react harshly. I thought the bigger ones would eat or chase the small ones, but to my surprise they both just kept on swimming the way they were as if nothing had happened.