Unknown reddish-brown thing (It's a Bryozoan statoblast!!)

[btschumy]

I ran across this last night in my "pond" aquarium. Anyone have a guess as to what it is? It is about 600 microns in length.

Sorry for the poor image. It was very dark and opaque. I had to significantly overexpose to see anything at all.

[KurtM]

Looks like a bryozoan statoblast to me. If you find several to many, try culturing them in some of the pond water you found 'em in, and in a few weeks you may be treated to some bryozoan colonies. (Or just leave 'em be if it's a large sample jar and they may well develop right there.) Bryozoans are delightfully fascinating critters, I'll keep my fingers crossed for you!

Photo: Note the nauplius larvae at lower right for scale reference. Image taken with Canon T3i DSLR w/ Canon 60mm macro lens w/ extension tubes.

[hkv]

Definitely a Bryozoan Statoblast. They shine in goldish brown if you get the lightning properly set.

[btschumy]

Very cool. Thanks for the ID guys. I had not heard of these before but will watch for the adult bryozoans.

[btschumy]

Just noticed that on the backside of my aquarium, I have something growing that looks just like Kurt's image. I even see little dark specs along the tube that must be the statoblasts. So I guess I have an active colony growing. I will try to sample some of it and get a picture or two this weekend.

Bill

[Crater Eddie]

That is very cool! I have never seen these, will have to keep a lookout from now on.
CE

[billbillt]

Looks like a bryozoan statoblast to me. If you find several to many, try culturing them in some of the pond water you found 'em in, and in a few weeks you may be treated to some bryozoan colonies. (Or just leave 'em be if it's a large sample jar and they may well develop right there.) Bryozoans are delightfully fascinating critters, I'll keep my fingers crossed for you!

Photo: Note the nauplius larvae at lower right for scale reference. Image taken with Canon T3i DSLR w/ Canon 60mm macro lens w/ extension tubes.

Hi Kurt,

Your photo is one of the clearest and most detailed I have ever seen!.. thanks for sharing!..

Billt

[75RR]

Very nice image.
Are those different statoblast stages?
I am going to assume they are and say: brilliant catch!!! :)

[billbillt]

Very nice image.
Are those different statoblast stages?
I am going to assume they are and say: brilliant catch!!!

It must be the different statoblast stages.. This is incredibly interesting!.. I would love to see more details of this!..

BillT

[KurtM]

Assuming Bill will forgive us for hijjacking his thread, here ya go. Several years ago before I discovered this forum, I had this bunch pop up in one of my micro aquariums and learned quite a bit about bryozoans. Soon thereafter, Rod came across some of his own, and posted videos, which I hope he will post links to because I remember them as being nothing short of astonishing.

Bill, if you're cool with all this, could you rename the thread to "Unknown reddish-brown thing is Bryozoan!"?

[btschumy]

Rename done.

So are all your pictures taken using a macro lens from outside the tank? Well done!

[KurtM]

So are all your pictures taken using a macro lens from outside the tank?

Yes, bryozoan are a bit large for compound microscopic study. Note "bell animalcule" colonies in image #2 (excluding the set-up shot), which resemble Vorticella in both appearance and size (Epistylus I believe), and again, a nauplius larva in image #3 at bottom right, for scale.

The macro photos more or less represent what may be seen in a lower power stereo scope, such as the rig I have shown previously:

[billbillt]

Hi Kurt,

I find your photos absolutely stunning!.. Wonderful work!..

BillT

[btschumy]

Got around to looking at my bryozoans today. It looks like the colony has died. Perhaps that is why they were producing so many statoblasts. My macro set up is not really macro and is much more primitive than Kurt's. This is what the colony looked like on the side of the aquarium. The dark spots are statoblasts that haven't been released.

Dead (or dying bryozoan colony)

IMG_1058.jpg (77 KiB) Viewed 6127 times

I removed the top part of the colony and put it on a slide. This confirmed the colony was dead. I did get some better pictures of the statoblasts though.

Stack of 7 images with 25x objective

Statoblast3.jpg (46.46 KiB) Viewed 6127 times

3_Statoblasts.jpg (89.25 KiB) Viewed 6127 times

Fun stuff