I missed the first two weeks, so this will be the first post from the aquarium.

As you can see from the gallery above, at week three there is still a great variety of life in the water. Compared to last week it seems there are fewer total organisms, but the diversity of life has, if anything, increased. The numbers of the fast moving Euchlanis rotifers present at week two have dropped precipitously, being replaced in part by a different, straight-toed rotifer species (above).

Similarly the numbers of shelled amoebas (like Difflugia) have decreased somewhat but stellate amoebas like the one pictured above are now numerous. As you can see in the background of most all of these images, chlorophyte algae that existed as colonies of only a few cells last week have now colonized the aquarium successfully, especially the branched Cladophora. Cyanobacteria are also now present. Unfortunately the wily nematode that I spotted in week two but was unable to photograph seems to have vanished.

The most striking thing under the microscope this week is the Stentor. This trumpet shaped organism is in the middle of a reproductive division as can be seen in the growth on the side of the trumpet above.

Thanks to Dr. McFarland for help identifying all these crazy things.