Initial examination of the microaquarium showed this amoeba located in the center of the non carnivorous plant at the middle of the water level. The water level was not substantially lower this week then it was last week which means that not a lot of water had evaporated in the alloted time period from my last observation.

I identified this amoeba in the Free-Living Freshwater Protozoa: A Color Guide by D.J. Patterson. I learned that this is a single celled amoeba with one large nucleus. The cell was opaque in color because of its food ingestion vacuoles according to Patterson's guide.

This amoeba did show motion. I do not believe the movement occurred because of flagella or existing cillia. I believe this because I did not see any flagella and the organism moved in a gelatinous slug like manner. I believe this organism moved as a result of a series of liquid vacuole contractions.

observation #4

This video was taken of a Actinosphaerium that just happened across an unlucky philodina rotifer and decided to engulf the organism and consume it.

The actinosphaerium I identified in Free-Living Freshwater Protozoa: The Colour Guide by D.J Patterson. I learned that this is an amoeba like structure which I could identify not only because the book noted this fact but also because of the way it moved in slow gelatinous motions and engulfed the philodina rotifer. The rotifer actually became tangled in the long spikes coming out of the amoeba. This is probably an adaptive way the organism has learned to better catch his prey.

The amoeba like actinosphaerium is a scavenger organism and sometimes ingests diatoms. It is unable to digest a diatom because diatoms are made up of silica which is hard and rock like. Sometimes you can find undigested diatoms within these creatures. The organism regulates water pressure by allowing a chamber within its body to fill with water and then pulse and allow the water to escape by contracting.

The actinosphaerium were everywhere in the microaquarium however it is important to note that they were not observed in the initial setup of the microaquarium which leads me to believe that it took them some time to grow and recreate and make themselves clearly visible in the microaquarium.