Initial Setup

The source of the water for my MicroAquarium™ experiment is as follows:

Carter Mill Park at spring source, Carter Mill Rd., Knox Co., TN Partial shade exposure N36 01.168 W83 42.832 940 ft 10/9/2011

I was curious about this source because of my interest in drinking water, having read that the "cleanest" sources are those that originate from spring water, additionally being "bottled at the source." So, I thought this was my chance to take a look at such a source.

Setup steps:

1. Obtained a MicroAquarium™. It included a glass tank, a stand holder and lid.
2. Using a pipette, extracted water from the source listed above.
a. Filled MicroAquarium™ tank about 1/3 full with water from the bottom of the container.
b. Filled tank to next 1/3 with water from the middle layer.
c. Filled tank to final 1/3 with water from the surface.
3. Added two plants to tank - Amblestegium sp. and Uticularia gibba L.

Additional information regarding the two plants:

Plant A . Amblestegium sp. Moss. Collection from: Natural spring. at Carters Mill Park, Carter Mill Road, Knox Co. TN. Partial shade exposure. N36 01.168 W83 42.832. 10/9/2011

Plant B. Utricularia gibba L. Flowering plant. A carnivous plant. Original material from south shore of Spain Lake (N 35o55 12.35" W088o20' 47.00), Camp Bella Air Rd. East of Sparta Tn. in White Co. and grown in water tanks outside of greenhouse at Hesler Biology Building. The University of Tennessee. Knox Co. Knoxville TN.

In the first observation just after setup, 10/12 at about 5:00pm, I observed quite a few stationary green objects in the water, but very few moving organisms - in fact only two as I scanned the whole MicroAquarium™. These were oval-shaped, single-celled organisms with a number of dots visible on the inside. They moved in a way that appeared quite anthropomorphic to me - in a manner that reminded me of a creature "sniffing" or nudging its way through the stationary green objects. Occasionally they would dart suddenly sideways. Dr. McFarland said he could see one of the dots inside the organism get darker just prior to the sideways dart, but I couldn't visibly verify this.