Prior to this observation, I saw that two additional food pellets had been placed in the tank. The water level had gone down and one of the original pellets was now above the water level. Dr. McFarland noted concern at the addition of food pellets, which was evidently above the level he had planned for the experiment.
I observed the following organisms:
Phylum Nematoda, identified from Kenneth G. Rainis and Bruce J. Russell's Guide to Microlife
Other organisms included Euclenis sp., Bursaria sp., and Litonotus sp., all of which were identified from D.J. Patterson's Free-Living Freshwater Protozoa.
This was the only observation in which Bursaria (a small U-shaped organism) and Litonotus (which featured a long neck that it could stretch for a considerable distance) appeared. When I returned next week, I saw no more of these. At this time, there was still a substantial nematode population but this would also drop in the following week. There were no more of the very numerous small ciliates that had previously featured in a video, prompting me to question why. I did not see these organisms' bodies, and Dr. McFarland suggested they had probably served as food for other organisms.
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