Initial set up and first observations

On Tuesday, each student was provided an individual MicroAquarium that consisted of two transparent slides of glass (approximately eight cm by five cm) attached together with a small hollow space between where our water source would be placed. Our aquariums included a stand to hold it upright and a top to prevent evaporation of the water inside. I selected water source number 7, which derived from the pond at the University of Tennessee Hospital. I used water from the top, middle, and bottom layer of  the container in order to observe a diversity of organisms that may only inhabit a specific one in its natural ecosystem. The bottom layer included sediment from the pond that may also contain organisms, and two plants were also placed in each aquarium to further replicate the organism's natural habitat.
Upon first glance, there seemed to be no apparent signs of life, but that was using the 10x objective on the microscope. When I increased the objective to 100x it was clear that life was thriving, especially around the  two plants. Although I couldn't identify exactly what species of organisms there were, I could tell they looked extremely similar to caterpillars, and that they may be some type of larvae. They moved like the larvae of mosquitoes and they had long slender bodies like mosquito larvae as well. These particular organisms were gathered around one of the plants, and preferred to be just outside the plant, not within. When I moved away from the plants, and observed the outer, emptier contents of the aquarium I noticed a few stationary protists that were obviously multicellular. These protists were more reminiscent of a beetle and when they did move, they moved very quickly and would dart in and out of my view extremely fast. With the time limited time I had I was not able to observe the bottom layer of my aquarium, so I am interested to see what type of life there is in and around the soil. I was surprised at the diversity of life I noticed with these initial observations yet I'm sure when i learn what to look for and where to look for it I will be further surprised.