There are numerous amounts of snails in the slide, around ten or so to be exact. It is very interesting to see them crawling on the glass sides. You can see the snails' mouths eating algae as they skim along the glass (a video of this will be posted once the lab is able to do so). It's pretty neat to watch. Also, their shells are transparent, and I am able to see their innards. The coolest part about their clear shells is the fact that I can see their hearts beating. In the bottom, dirt area, I was able to witness a large nematode and a snail fighting. Unfortunately, my hands weren't quick enough to take a picture, but it was an epic battle of microscopic wits.
Here are two images of some snails that I found:
This is one of the many snails that I found.
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I attempted to capture a picture of multiple snails in one photo. . . these are the results---------------------------->
Along with these snails, many more organisms have sprung to life in the aquarium. There are a few VERY large rotifers along with a few large nematodes. In every square unit of the MicroAquarium, there are hundreds of paramecium, especially around the algae from the river water. There are a few visible stephanodiscuses, circular diatoms and a few noticeable pinnulara. But, there is a large community of melosira, rod-shaped diatoms, around the grass pieces.
Along with these other findings, I found a few ostracods, about twenty euplotes, and other variously sized rotifers. Also, in the dirt at the bottom, I found one planaria, but it wasn't doing much, so I think it might have been dead. . . or taking a nap from all the hard work that the day had to offer. Its hard being a planaria. . .
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