Quest

2004:
2/27/04
2/15/04
2/10/04
1/31/04
1/25/04
1/18/04

2003:
12/31/03
12/22/03
11/4/03
10/9/03
9/19/03
9/6/03
8/23/03
8/8/03
7/13/03
7/08/03
6/21/03
6/13/03
5/19/03
5/06/03
4/20/03
3/25/03
3/23/03
2/18/03
1/5/03

2002:
11/11/02
10/11/02
10/03/02
9/1/02
8/10/02
7/14/02
7/2/02
6/4/02
4/6/02
3/14/02

2001:
6/28/01
5/31/01
4/26/01
3/29/01

2000:
11/30/00
10/24/00
9/28/00
8/21/00
7/27/00
6/22/00
5/25/00
4/20/00
3/10/00
2/24/00

Q U E S T Newsletter of the Madison Aquarium Gardeners Club 2/15/04

NEXT MEETING: Thursday, February 26, 6:30 - 9:00 PM.

(Previously scheduled as Wednesday the 25, but changed to Thursday, 26). As usual, we rendezvous at Science House, 1645 Linden Drive, UW Campus

Agenda:

1. Website Update, a review by Greg Stahl
2. AGA (Aquatic Gardeners Association) Convention video clip
3. Q&A

January 28 Meeting Reflections: Professor Paul Williams dutifully arranged three exploration stations, each containing three focus areas: 1. Viewing platform with eight 20 ounce mini aquaria. 2. Flex Cam connected to a TV monitor. 3. Flat work space for creating mini aquaria modules. What an inviting eyes-on, hands-on discovery place, all ready to go. We can see Brian Torreano wasting no time.

The aquaria collection at each table showcased a range of aquatic plants from Lake Mendota, certainly an encouragement for classroom experimenters to venture into area wetlands and glean a few specimens. Well, we could try it too. Daphnia scooting about throughout mini aqua forests and snails going at their expected pace, sure gets one to wondering about ecosystem dynamics.

Each adventure site had 10 power magnifying glass "loops", so folks could get up real close and see things in detail. Naomi Delventhal was gazing for a long time at one aquaria and then delightfully declared, " I just saw a Daphnia molt! I have never seen this before."

Flex camera connected to TV monitor allows one to position a small video camera near aquaria and focus about 1.5" half way into the center of a 20 ounce plastic bottle aquaria. What a show, seeing dozens of dancing Daphnia and fine structures of plant tissues fill the screen.

Everybody had a chance to construct their own tiny aquascapes using some of Paul's small aquatic plants, algae, snail and daphnia collection.

Plenty of extra green water cultures and robust daphnia were available to take home for those interested in propagating daphnia as fish food treats. In addition to green water, daphnia love to feed on Crustacean Cocktail: 1 tsp Yeast, 1 tsp Gerber Sweet Potatoes, 1 tbs Homogenized spinach and 1 cup water. Just cloud the water and when daphnia clear it, add more Cocktail. Store yummy juice in a refrigerator.

I was reading in Dynamic Aquaria, Building Living Ecosystems, Adey and Loveland. Ran across a neat word, heuristic, meaning self teaching. To quote Adey and Loveland, " a universal and most desirable characteristic of dynamic aquaria".

Thank you, good mentor Professor Paul Williams, for sharing your inquiring mind and introducing us to to handy tools of discovery.

John