Final Report

1. Red Mangrove Microaquarium

2. Mason Floyd, MFloyd, http://masonfloyd.blogspot.com/

3. Introduction: The living world is incredibly diverse, and much of it goes unseen by the naked eye. The objective of the Microaquarium project was to shed some light on the hidden world of common water sources. This project allowed us to observe many tiny organisms in active surroundings, which has been a wonderful learning tool.

4. Materials and Methods:
1. Materials: Microaquarium – Small observation container

Water – Taken from surroundings of a red mangrove plant

Moss – Also taken from surroundings of mangrove

Microscope

Pellet Food

2. Methods: Once a week the Microaquarium was observed and findings were reported upon in an online journal, my website http://masonfloyd.blogspot.com/. On Thursday October 25, 2007 one pellet of "Atison's Betta Food" was added to the microaquarium to provide a source of energy.
4. Results and Discussion:
1. Results: A full account of my results can be found in my blog, but I will write a summary here. Upon first inspecting the container a wide range of life was observed. I had no idea that this much life would be thriving in ordinary water. There were a large amount of ostrocods, a few single celled organisms, and the moss all interacting. Within one week many changes had occurred. The moss had begun to decay and a new organism now identified as Aeolosomatidae, a microscopic annelid had show itself. My next observation showed me the true range of life in my microaquarium. A cyanobacteria previously thought to be part of the moss was seen, Scytonema, as well as a wide range of diatoms. Some rotifers were also seen, Epiphaner. My last observation also showed some new life, a cyanobacteria thought to be Nostoc was observed. Diatoms had increased greatly in number, as well as the Scytonema.
2. Discussion: Throughout the observation period there was one organism that I always enjoyed examining, the Ostracods. Their specific classification is Kingdom Animalia, Phylum Anthropoda, Subphylum Crustacea, Class Ostracoda, Order Myodocopida¹. Ostracods have been recorded from the Cambrian period which began about 550 million years ago, but it is unsure whether to classify these early organisms as full ostracods². There are about 2000 living, fresh-water species, such as the ones observed in my microaquarium, and 10,000 recorded fossil species³. The Class Ostracoda is divided from other Crustacea with their sideways packed body, indiscriminate head, seven or less thoracic appendages and the two halved shell. The extant ostracods are also classified in many times by differences in their limbs².

This was truly a fascinating organism to watch in a natural habitat. The microaquarium project has opened my eyes to a wide range of organisms that I never knew existed. Seeing a closed and thriving ecosystem on the miniscule scale was a site to behold.

Bibliography

¹Ostracod. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seed_shrimp>. Accessed 2007 Nov 22

²Ostracods. <http://www.ucl.ac.uk/GeolSci/micropal/ostracod.html>.

Accessed 2007 Nov 22

³Ostracods. <http://www.micrographia.com/specbiol/crustac/ostraco/ostr0100.htm> Accessed 2007 Nov 26