November 12

This is a video i made last week of the rotifer G. Limnias. Limnias is a sessile (lives attached to a surface) in tubes of mucus or pellets. the corona or crown of cilia are four lobed. Info from: Rotifers by Joset Donner.

A lot of water has evaporated from my Microaquarium since last week and it is know only about half full. The number of organisms has also drastically decreased since last week and i only saw a few organisms. Tachysoma #'s are down and i was able to see approximately 35 of them today. Phacus algae are the most abundant organism still alive and replace the tachysomas which were most abundant for the past few weeks. Gastrotrich are still living and i observed about 20 of them. The last organisms still found consisted of about 12 Rotifers. All of the Rotifers Gastrotriches and Tachysomas seem to have lost a lot of mass from the previous weeks. Considering that these organisms look smaller and that the Phacus algea is now the most abundant organism; i believe that the decline in many organisms may be due to a lack of food and starvation.

References: Donner, J. 1966. Rotifers. Frederick Warne & Co: London. p. 64