A Glimpse of Change

On Friday, I visited my MicroAquarium for the first time. The seemingly isolated life in the sample of quarry water I had started with had proliferated magnificently in just little over a week's time. I found myself fascinated by the observation of these mostly microscopic creatures. At first, the aquarium had appeared just the way I had left it, but when I turned it over to place under the microscope lens I noticed the furious activity of a water flea whom had been displaced. He darted into the mud at the bottom and I did not see him again. Upon closer inspection with the aid of the microscope, I was able to identify the feeding activity of many Paramecium  mostly on the dead leaf material that I had added at the end of my last session with the aquarium, but I am still working on uncovering the specific species. I was a little disappointed to note that even with scouring I was only able to uncover a single rice-shaped brown diatom about 11-12mm in length. There were also several organisms 7-10mm in length that were crawling through the layers of the leaf material but I could not glimpse them sufficiently for identification either.