Releasing the Coleps

Halloween was well spent. I used some afternoon time that day to go take a look at the micro aquarium I have been observing for the past couple of weeks. I must say, things have definitely changed since we first built them.

First, on October 25th, one beta food pellet was added to everyone's micro aquarium. It came from: "Atison's Betta Food" made by Ocean Nutrition, Aqua Pet Americas, 3528 West 500 South, Salt Lake City, UT 84104. The ingredients of this beta food include: Fish meal, wheat flower, soy meal, krill meal, minerals, vitamins and preservatives. The nutrients inside included: Crude Protein 36%; Crude fat 4.5%; Crude Fiber 3.5%; Moisture 8% and Ash 15%.

That played a significant role in how the micro aquarium functioned. As usual, there many moving organisms moving around the plant and they all ranged from single celled, multi celled, chlorophyll and non-green organisms. I was able to identify the organism I have been wanting to identify for the past three weeks though. Coleps: “about  a dozen cells are to be seen clustering around the cast exoskeleton of an arthropod. The cells are feeding on the remnants of tissue. Calcareous plates are laid down in the cortex, giving the cells their scaly appearance.” They were feeding at the food pellet; that's where they clustered and gathered, most of the time. Before it was put in I would see them just moving around looking for food, but now that there is a food source, I was able to see the vast amount of them that are in the micro aquarium. 

As seen, here are a few Coleps going at some food located in the micro aquarium. They are beautifully colored, multi cellular organisms that move about their merry way in an oval shaped form. 

On another note, there are not that many rotifers anymore. I couldn't identify as many as I did last week, but maybe that was me mostly focusing on the beta food and Coleps. There were also no identifiable dead organisms at the bottom of the aquarium. Typical. They are probably down there, but almost too microscopic to tell or I just have the worst eyesight and cannot even see it myself. 

Other than the exciting Colep news, nothing else has changed. The aquarium is getting darker. When I say that I mean it doesn't look as fresh as it did way back in the beginning. That's expected though. I'm using pond water and the organisms are not helping at all. 

I haven't posted many pictures of the aquarium, but next week I will hopefully have more exciting news and stories to share to you. Until next time, have a good week!



Works Cited

Patterson, D.J. "Free-Living Freshwater Protozoa: A Colour Guide". 2003. Washington D.C. Library of Congress. Pg 163.

McFarland, Kenneth [Internet] Botany 111 Fall 2013. [cited 1 Nov 2013]. Available from http://botany1112013.blogspot.com/