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Where Can I Find Ciliates without Any Creeks or Ponds?

Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2020 1:34 am
by DonSchaeffer
I live in an area without convenient access to a natural water source. I tried collecting samples from puddles, old watering cans, rainwater collectors. I have made cultures from grass and flowers. I'm having no luck finding microbes to hunt. Any suggestions?

Re: Where Can I Find Ciliates without Any Creeks or Ponds?

Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2020 1:50 am
by BramHuntingNematodes
Also, if you want to see some nematodes, even houseplants will have them in their soil. Who knows what else might have snuck in from the nursery?

Re: Where Can I Find Ciliates without Any Creeks or Ponds?

Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2020 2:39 am
by deBult
Try the water from a flower vase after the flowers we're in for a few day’s.
Or squeeze the liquid out of a bit of water soaked moss if you can find some (with luck you find some water bears).

Weird the cultures from (dried) lettuce, hay, a corn of grain, tiny piece of cheese etc. did not work out.
I usually start with boiling (A few minutes) some soil in water (for nutrients) cool down, poor the liquid (not the dirt) in a glass jam jar (no lid) add a bit (don’t overdo) of one of the above Ingredients , wait a few day’s until it starts smelling foul ... and eureka.

Re: Where Can I Find Ciliates without Any Creeks or Ponds?

Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2020 10:56 am
by Hobbyst46
deBult wrote:
Thu Jul 09, 2020 2:39 am
Try the water from a flower vase after the flowers we're in for a few day’s.
Or squeeze the liquid out of a bit of water soaked moss if you can find some (with luck you find some water bears).

Weird the cultures from (dried) lettuce, hay, a corn of grain, tiny piece of cheese etc. did not work out.
I usually start with boiling (A few minutes) some soil in water (for nutrients) cool down, poor the liquid (not the dirt) in a glass jam jar (no lid) add a bit (don’t overdo) of one of the above Ingredients , wait a few day’s until it starts smelling foul ... and eureka.
Rotting peels and hay work even without dirt.
Immerse a banana peel, or a bunch of yellow dry hay (any) in a cup of water. As is, without boiling. Place it in a non-cold place (say, temperature of 20-30C). Wait several days. At first you will see a few ciliates. But they multiply within a couple of days.

Re: Where Can I Find Ciliates without Any Creeks or Ponds?

Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2020 1:23 pm
by DonSchaeffer
Cultures usually make a lot of bacteria and cynobacteria but only rare microbes.

Re: Where Can I Find Ciliates without Any Creeks or Ponds?

Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2020 1:34 pm
by DrPhoxinus
In my experience it is important to set up a series of culture jars with varying amounts of dried grass etc.
Too much grass gives an anaerobic environment not good for ciliates

I have used damp soil from a houseplant and gotten some nice Colpoda.

Gerard

Re: Where Can I Find Ciliates without Any Creeks or Ponds?

Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2020 2:37 pm
by DonSchaeffer
Wow! great suggestions. I'm busy.

Re: Where Can I Find Ciliates without Any Creeks or Ponds?

Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2020 3:52 pm
by Zuul
I’ve found a birdbath, left to its own devices other than topping off, develops quite a rich ecosystem. Large surface area catches lots of airborn “stuff” and visitation by a variety of critters that bring many hitchhikers.

Re: Where Can I Find Ciliates without Any Creeks or Ponds?

Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2020 5:21 pm
by DonSchaeffer
Thanks Zuui. Actually my old lawn grass culture has yielded at least a couple of rotifers, a round ciliate, and a very active nematode. I'm a happy cmaper.

Re: Where Can I Find Ciliates without Any Creeks or Ponds?

Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2020 1:45 am
by apochronaut
Don. You have posted some photos of Goldeye bones. Presumably you had a Winnipeg Goldeye in hand and can get another. There is your goldmine of cultures. Cut off a chunk of tail , gills , scales or fins and culture them briefly with a bit of sugar....10-20 grains or so. Then strain off the fish parts and reculture, keeping in the sun. It will smell a bit but you've got your goldmine, er, goldeye. Reculturing will lose the fish smell and it will reduce to just swamp. Kind of like the Winnipeg tap water. Lots of stuff will emerge from that culture. If the fishmonger you bought the goldeye from is in direct contact with the fisherman, see if he can put in a request for a clump of algae from Lake Winnipeg.

Re: Where Can I Find Ciliates without Any Creeks or Ponds?

Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2020 2:35 am
by DonSchaeffer
I bought the goldeye from my nearby IGA and had three breakfasts with it. My son has a cabin at Lake Winnipeg and I keep begging for water samples, so far not forthcoming. Thanks.