Week 1

In the first week of our microaquarium project we set the initial conditions for our experiments. For my microaquarium I chose to use a water source from a pool below the spring in Fountain City Park (#12) west of Broadway at Hotel Ave in Knoxville, Tennessee. Full coordinate data is N36 02.253 W83 55.986 990ft. The water was collected on 10/9/2013 and placed in the aquarium on  10/15/2013 (Mcfarland, 2013)

To the basic aquarium two plants were added. The first was Utricularia gibba.

As the card states, this is a carnivorous plant. There are black nodules on the plant that traps and digests water fauna.

Also added to the aquarium was Fontinalis sp moss.

This gave the microaquarium its final look.

During the initial observation several small organisms were spotted. One, a rotifer, was too quick to snap a picture and identify! But this guy was a little slower moving:

He's pretty neat. Stay tuned for identification!
UPDATED: Identified as a diatom algae Surirella. See week 3 for more details!